Major global polluters: Farmers to file ‘Climate Justice Claim’
KARACHI: Farmers affected by the devastating 2022 floods on Thursday announced the filing of a climate justice claim against major global carbon emitters, saying the unprecedented disaster had exposed Pakistan’s extreme vulnerability to climate change.
Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, farmer claimants Hamza Khan Kalhoro, Abdul Hafeez Khoso, and Abdul Khaliq Leghari from Larkana, Jacobabad, and Dadu said “the 2022 floods had destroyed crops, livestock, and homes, pushing thousands of farming families into long-term economic distress.”
The speakers said that Pakistan, despite contributing less than one per cent to global greenhouse gas emissions, had suffered disproportionate losses due to climate-induced extreme weather events.
They argued that historically high-emitting corporations must be held accountable for climate-related losses and damages. They said the companies responsible for pollution continued to grow richer day by day, while affected communities were pushed further back due to their actions and the climate crisis.
They added that they had now begun their struggle and were filing a climate justice case against two major historical polluters in Germany, RWE and Heidelberg Materials. They said that 43 farmers from Sindh were filing the claim, seeking compensation for the losses they suffered during the 2022 floods.
NTUF leader Nasir Mansoor termed climate change a livelihood and labour rights issue, noting that repeated climate shocks were undermining rural employment and food security. He said the absence of climate-resilient policies was deepening inequality and pushing working communities further into poverty.
He further said Pakistan was among the regions most severely affected by climate change. “In Pakistan, 14,000 glaciers located across three mountain ranges were rapidly melting due to rising temperatures, and ninety per cent of the historic Indus Delta had been lost as a result of these climate changes.”
He said the industrial model of capitalist development had brought the planet to the brink of destruction, adding “today humanity was the last generation with the opportunity to save the Earth and the life upon it. The decision by farmers in Sindh, affected by environmental devastation, to pursue legal action against two German companies for climate justice was described as a timely and historic decision.”
Dr Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed of the HANDS Welfare Foundation said the 2022 floods were not a “natural disaster alone” but a consequence of global warming. “Our farmers are paying the price for emissions they did not cause,” he said.
He added that human-driven industrialisation, deforestation, and the unchecked use of fossil fuels had intensified extreme weather, turning natural hazards into large-scale human disasters. Dr Tanveer said climate justice required accountability from major polluters and compensation for communities whose livelihoods had been destroyed.
International solidarity partners supporting the claim said climate litigation was increasingly being used worldwide to seek accountability where political responses had fallen short.
Miriam Saage-Maab, German Constitutional lawyer & representative of the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Germany, said the case aimed to amplify the voices of flood-affected communities in international legal forums.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025