A German court this week will hear arguments in a decade-old international dispute that activists hope will end with a precedent-setting ruling that puts a price tag on energy companies’ contributions to climate change.

The case, Luciano Lliuya v. RWE AG, was filed in 2015 and pits Peruvian farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya against a German energy giant. In the lawsuit, Lliuya argues that RWE owes him money because the company’s emissions have helped put his mountain village of Huaraz at risk of flooding from melting glaciers.

The lawsuit asks RWE, Germany’s largest electricity provider, to pay €21,000 — its estimated contribution to global industrial greenhouse gas emissions — to help fund a flood-prevention project.

While there’s not a lot of money at stake in the challenge, the case will be watched by attorneys around the globe, said Michael Gerrard, faculty director of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

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