A Case For Nepal: Suing Major Carbon Emitters For Floods, Pg6

Key Highlights:

• Catastrophic floods in Nepal in August 2026, overwhelmingly attributed to climate change, resulted in thousands of deaths.
• A growing debate suggests exploring climate litigation to hold major carbon emitters accountable for such climate-related damages.
• Establishing direct legal causation between an individual emitter's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and specific local impacts like floods remains challenging.
• The German Lliyua vs RWE case (May 2025) established that large emitters can be held responsible for climate risks in distant countries.
• The Dutch Court of Appeal in Milieudefensie et al vs Royal Dutch Shell (November 2024) affirmed companies' duty to limit GHG emissions based on general duty of care.
• Four Indonesian islanders have sued Swiss building material giant Holcim (Asmania vs Holcim) seeking GHG reduction and compensation for damages.

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Detailed Insights:

• The Nepal floods are another example of severe climate change impacts in South Asia, following the 2022 Pakistan floods.
• Climate litigation in Europe and the U.S. has seen plaintiffs claim risks to life, health, and property against states and corporations.
• Legal reasoning often struggles with the concept that individual emitters make incremental contributions to global GHGs, leading to diffuse impacts.
• Identifying specific victim groups, such as those in Nepal's Trishuli and Bhote Koshi river basins exposed to Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), is crucial for legal standing.
• Glaciers in the Tibetan Autonomous Region are retreating rapidly, increasing the risk of GLOFs in adjacent areas like Nepal.
• The Higher Court of Appeal in Hamm in the Lliyua case accepted that past individual climate harms can proportionally contribute to climate risks.
• This ruling indicated that long distance and global scale do not automatically shield a corporation from liability for climate harms.
• The Dutch Court of Appeal in the Shell case emphasized a company's obligation to limit GHG emissions under Dutch tort law and human rights standards.
• These landmark cases signify a growing judicial awareness of the responsibilities of large emitters in addressing climate change threats.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Climate Litigation: Legal actions initiated to hold governments or corporations accountable for their contributions to climate change or its impacts.
• Causation (Climate Law): The legal principle of establishing a direct and sufficiently proximate link between a defendant's greenhouse gas emissions and specific climate-related damages.
• Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs): Sudden and rapid releases of large volumes of water from glacial lakes, often triggered by glacier melt or dam failure.