A landmark court ruling in a case that pitted a Peruvian farmer and mountain guide against a mammoth German utility could open the door to corporate liability for climate pollution in Canada, a leading environmental lawyer says.

In Hamm, Germany earlier today, the Higher Regional Court ruled that major emitters can be held liable for the consequences of climate change, even though it threw out the specific civil case by Peruvian mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya against RWE, the country’s biggest power producer.

“Today the mountains have won,” Luciano Lliuya declared. “Even if my case doesn’t go any further, it has reached an important milestone, and that makes me proud. This ruling shows that the big polluters driving the climate [emergency] can finally be held legally responsible for the harm they have caused.”

While the judges concluded that the flood risk to Luciano Lliuya’s home below a melting glacier was not sufficient to warrant compensation, “it confirmed for the first time that major emitters can be held liable under German civil law for risks resulting from climate change,” Germanwatch wrote. “This sets a legal precedent with far-reaching implications, potentially influencing similar cases in countries like Switzerland and Belgium, and applicable in other jurisdictions such as the UK, the Netherlands, the USA, or Japan.”

Or in Canada, said Ecojustice Climate Director Charlie Hatt.

“There is every chance this principle will eventually become a precedent in Canadian courts, as well,” Hatt said in a release. “Investors and fossil execs take note—it is only a matter of time before the bill for climate harms will come due.”

Already, “as governments and large corporations fail to control their climate pollution, claimants are increasingly finding success holding them accountable in the courts, including examples like the youth-led Mathur case here in Canada,” he added. “The principle is simple: it is wrong to produce and burn fossil fuels in excess of the limits defined by climate science because it harms people, and anyone harmed may get a legal remedy against the wrongdoers.”

The case dates back nearly a decade, to when Luciano Lliuya filed his claim “that RWE’s pollution is a civil nuisance that increases the flood threat to his home and community by melting the precarious glaciers on the steep-sided Andes above the town,” Inside Climate News reports. “RWE is responsible for about 0.4% of global industrial-age greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Carbon Majors database. Based on that figure, calculated together with climate attribution studies that show how every additional increment of carbon dioxide warms the planet, Lliuya wanted RWE to admit its liability and pay about $17,000 to help build flood defences for the town.”

In 2016, a district court in RWE’s home community of Essen ruled that individual effects of climate change couldn’t be traced back to specific polluters, Inside Climate writes. But attribution science has come a long way since then. The Higher Regional Court accepted an expert opinion that the flood risk in this case was insufficient to warrant further investigation, according to a statement from the utility. But the court still ruled that carbon polluters can be held accountable for their share of emissions, or required to take preventive measures.

“What factual scenarios could warrant such an outcome in Germany is unclear, as legal experts are still analyzing the 137-page ruling,” Inside Climate says.

Still, international legal experts heaped praise on what Jasper Tuelings, strategic advisor at the Climate Litigation Network, declared a “historic judgement”.

“The Peruvian mountain guide has paved the way for a new era of holding fossil fuel companies accountable,” said Sebastien Duyck, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law. “For too long, these heavy emitters have been able to harm our environment with no regard to the consequences,” but “that time is over,” Ducyk said. “Saúl’s breakthrough opens up a well of opportunities for the more than 40 similar cases ongoing. It makes it more likely that those living at the sharp edge of climate change, such as Saul and his community, can succeed in holding heavy emitters to account for the damage they cause.”