Saúl Luciano Lliuya guides tours in the mountains and his family grow corn, wheat, barley, and potatoes on their farm in Huaraz, Peru, a community of more than 100,000 people in the Andes near Palcacocha, a glacial lake. Palcacocha, however, is growing, as is the major flood risk to Huaraz. Climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases continues to melt the Peruvian glaciers—greenhouse gases that come from corporate polluters not just in Peru, but across the industrialized world. So, Luciano Lliuya decided to sue. Although the German energy company RWE has never operated in Peru, Luciano Lliuya sought to hold the company, which uses coal power generation, liable for damages in a groundbreaking case that, despite being dismissed, established that major emitters can be held liable for climate harms. In The Climate Trial, anthropologist Noah Walker-Crawford draws on years of personal involvement with the lawsuit and extensive fieldwork in Peru and Germany to follow the people, legal strategies, scientific arguments, and political tensions that have shaped the trial. More than a courtroom drama, The Climate Trial is a deeply human story about moral responsibility in a changing world and what it means to be a “good neighbor” while living thousands of miles away.
Abbreviations and Glossary xi Key Characters xiii Introduction: Climate Justice in Court 1 Part I. Making a Climate Change Lawsuit 19 1. Glaciers Melt into the Courtroom 21 2. David and Goliath in the Courtroom 34 Interlude 1: Andean Life in an Uncertain Climate 53 3. The Politics of Personhood 57 Part II. Causality in the Courtroom 73 4. Truth and Responsibility in the Courtroom 75 Interlude 2: Courtroom Interrogation 88 5. Tracing Emissions 90 Interlude 3: Climate Skeptics at Large 97 6. Modeling the Global Climate 99 7. Measuring Palcacocha 110 Part III. Melting Glaciers Play Politics 125 8. Glacial Politics 129 9. Engineering in a Sentient Environment 146 Interlude 4: Unexpected Stardom 161 Conclusion: Changing the Legal Climate 163 Afterword 181 Acknowledgments 183 Notes 187 References 193 Index 213
Noah Walker-Crawford is a research fellow at the London School of Economics and Imperial College London. He also advises litigants and NGOS on using legal tools to fight for climate justice.
“Through an anthropologist’s lens, Noah Walker-Crawford brings the Lliuya v. RWE case to life and, in doing so, reframes climate litigation as a question of neighborliness and responsibility across scales. This vivid, deeply informed account shows how science, law, and lived experience meet in court – and why it matters for justice in a warming world. A compelling, essential read for lawyers, activists, and scholars alike.”—Joana Setzer, Associate Professor, LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
“The Climate Trial is a riveting, intimate account of juridical possibilities long thought impossible. Through clear, elegant prose, Walker-Crawford weaves together the suspense of a transnational legal drama with an impassioned analytic that unfolds how legal principles and strategies yielded an improbable case. The Climate Trial is a must read for those concerned about our planetary climate crisis and pathways for securing corporate accountability.”—Suzana Sawyer, author of The Small Matter of Suing Chevron
"With precision and elegance, Walker-Crawford weaves together Luciano Lliuya’s story with complex debates on causation, evidence, and the role of law in the climate crisis. The result is a fascinating book."—Maxim Bönnemann, Verfassungsblog
"[The Climate Trial] is a fascinating and worthwhile read because it seeks to get to the bottom of a key question that has bedevilled climate diplomacy: who should ultimately take responsibility for climate change?"—Gavin O'Toole, Latin American Review of Books
