Thirty-nine Pakistani farmers from Sindh, including Abdul Hafeez Khoso, are suing German energy firm RWE and cement maker Heidelberg Materials over losses from the 2022 floods. The claim asks major emitters of climate-warming gases to pay damages for climate impacts, a rare step in a field where cases have mostly targeted governments. Both companies deny wrongdoing, and the outcome is not yet known.
Emissions, not local operations, are the target
The companies are not being sued over specific operations in Pakistan. The case instead argues that their emissions, the gases released into the air that trap heat, contributed to climate change and to the heavy rain that wiped out crops, livestock and homes. Both firms are headquartered in Germany, where a recent legal case opened the door to such suits.
The plaintiffs estimate that RWE and Heidelberg Materials contributed 0.68 per cent and 0.12 per cent of global industrial emissions, respectively. Khoso, a 43-year-old who lives in Jacobabad district with his wife and toddler, described the 2022 floods as an "apocalyptic" scene that even elders had never seen. He said the family had nothing left afterwards, and that pollution does not stop at borders.
Farmers describe losses that linger
Munawar Khatoon, one of the few women who own land in her conservative area, said the floods struck just before the wheat harvest and submerged seeds. That wiped out her family's main source of income, and she said she now feels fear when the rainy season comes. In Dadu district, litigant Abdul Khalique Laghari, 55, estimated that he lost $14,000 in assets, including his house, 40 acres (16 hectares) of crops and livestock.
Laghari said the family is still unable to repay its debts, and that creditors call them every morning. The research the lawsuit draws on documents losses across the country, where the floods hit a third of Pakistan, killed 1,700 people and affected 30 million.
Legal path and the experts' view
The case builds on a German court ruling in a claim brought by a Peruvian farmer, also against RWE. That claim was rejected, but the courts left open the possibility of holding emitters liable. Roda Verheyen, a German lawyer involved in both cases, said the farmers' lawsuit builds on that ruling and accuses the companies of "wrongful behaviour".
Verheyen said large companies knew about the general impacts of climate change from the 1960s and should have done more to cut their emissions. Lawyers say a ruling requiring a company to pay compensation in proportion to its greenhouse gas emissions would be a major breakthrough. Climate litigation has so far largely targeted governments, with only a handful of firms, including Shell and cement maker Holcim, facing suits over climate disaster compensation.
Mir Keerio, a development expert at HANDS Welfare Foundation, which mobilised communities for the lawsuit, said science shows climate change is raising the risks and intensity of extreme weather. Pakistani and European organisations are backing the case, which the firms have not accepted responsibility for.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Sindh ke 39 kisanon ne 2022 ke sailab ke nuqsan ka muawza Germany ki do companies, RWE aur Heidelberg Materials, se mangne ke liye case kiya hai. Yeh case companies ke emissions par mabni hai, na ke Pakistan mein unke kaam par. Companies ghalat kaam se inkaar karti hain aur faisla abhi baaqi hai. Aam logon ke liye sawal yeh hai ke mausmiyati tabahi ka bojh kaun uthayega.
