Pakistani farmers in long fight to make German firms pay for flood damage

Abdul Hafeez Khoso, one of 39 Pakistani farmers pursuing a climate lawsuit against German firms, chants "polluters have to pay" with schoolchildren during an awareness event in Jacobabad in Pakistan's Sindh province on July 29. | AFP-JIJI

AFP-Jiji

Nov 11, 2026

Jacobabad, Pakistan – In a Pakistani village nestled in rice fields, Abdul Hafeez Khoso remembers the vast industrial zones he saw in Germany when he visited to file a pioneering climate legal case.

“They’re spreading pollution: up in the sky there are no borders, it can affect anywhere,” the 43-year-old said. “This is a problem for the whole world — that is why it should be resolved at the global level.”

Khoso and 38 other farmers from Pakistan’s southern Sindh province who were devastated by “apocalyptic” flooding in 2022 are suing German energy firm RWE and cement maker Heidelberg Materials in a rare bid to make big polluters pay damages for climate impacts.

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