In a decision that has been ten years in the making, judges in the western German city of Hamm have thrown out the case of a Peruvian farmer seeking damages from energy giant RWE for the risk of flooding connected to melting glaciers.

Delivering its verdict in the David versus Goliath case, judges said the damage to Saul Luciano Lluiya's property from a potential glacier flood was not high enough. They ruled out an appeal.

But in a legal first, the court did rule that companies can be held liable for the impacts of their emissions.

Speaking after the verdict, Lluiya's lawyer Roda Verheyen said that although the court had not recognised the risk to her client's home, the ruling was a "milestone" that would "give a tailwind to climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies."

"The judgement that we've just heard means that every community and every person that is affected by climate change today can look at large emitters to take a responsibility, legal responsibility, and it is an immense historic shifting of the dial that's happened today," she later told DW

The environmental NGO Germanwatch, which has supported the plaintiff throughout the long legal proceedings, said the ruling marked "a great success."

"The court's decision, which at first glance sounds like a defeat due to the dismissal of the case, is actually a historic landmark ruling that can be invoked by those affected in many places around the world," the nonprofit said in a statement.

"This is because there are very similar legal requirements in numerous other countries, such as the UK, the Netherlands, the USA and Japan."

It is almost a decade since........

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