A small group of farmers from Sindh may have just launched one of the most significant legal challenges in the global fight for climate justice. Their decision to take two German giants – RWE and Heidelberg – to court for damages caused by Pakistan’s devastating 2022 floods is essentially a demand for global accountability. When entire communities in the Global South lose their livelihoods while powerful corporations in the wealthy Global North continue to profit from pollution, the call for climate reparations becomes a matter of survival. Pakistan contributes less than one per cent to global greenhouse gas emissions and yet remains on the frontlines of the climate crisis. The 2022 floods submerged a third of the country, killed over 1,700 people, displaced 33 million and caused losses of up to $30 billion. Sindh’s farmers – many of whom lost two harvests and watched their land stay under water for over a year – are not asking for charity but for justice. Their case echoes a growing global movement that now includes lawsuits by typhoon survivors in the Philippines and island residents in Indonesia.
This demand for accountability also comes at a critical moment. Aid flows have been shrinking, even as the health, food and economic costs of climate change continue to mount. A new Lancet Countdown report released last week highlighted the urgency: climate inaction is already killing hundreds of thousands each year. Heat-related deaths have risen by 23 per cent since the 1990s; 124 million more people faced food insecurity in 2023 because of droughts and heatwaves; and economies are bleeding productivity losses exceeding a trillion dollars annually. Meanwhile, fossil fuel subsidies – nearly a trillion dollars in 2023 – continue to dwarf climate finance. For countries like Pakistan, this year’s COP will be pivotal. With aid cuts and donor fatigue setting in, Islamabad and other climate-vulnerable nations must argue forcefully for the activation and expansion of the Loss and Damage Fund. Without it, communities already teetering on the edge – farmers, fisherfolk and low-income urban populations – will slide deeper into destitution.
The economic distress is already visible at home. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan reports circular debt in the food sector ballooning past Rs325 billion, driven largely by unpaid dues and inefficiency. A collapsing food financing system, combined with erratic climate patterns, is a recipe for chronic food insecurity. Add to this the growing toll on public health and the scale of the crisis becomes undeniable. Pakistan needs systemic change. Climate reparations are a recognition of historical responsibility. Industrial nations built their prosperity on carbon emissions that now threaten the existence of countries like ours. The Loss and Damage Fund must not become another bureaucratic pledge. It must deliver. As the world gathers for COP30 in Brazil in a few days, Pakistan and its allies in the Global South must make their voices impossible to ignore. The farmers of Sindh have already taken the first brave step by reminding the world that climate justice is not an abstract debate.