The HANDS Welfare Foundation, in partnership with Medico International and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, is preparing litigation in a German court to hold two German corporations accountable for carbon emissions linked to the catastrophic 2022 floods in Pakistan. Baseline research carried out by HANDS identified small farmers in Larkana and Jacobabad who suffered severe losses, and the organisation argues that the floods were a direct consequence of climate change.
This legal action is framed as a pursuit of Climate Justice that seeks not only compensation for affected families but also a broader precedent for corporate accountability. HANDS maintains that powerful emitters must either drastically reduce emissions or be liable to compensate vulnerable communities that bear the costs of climate-driven disasters.
Pakistan, despite contributing less than one percent of global carbon emissions, remains among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. Rapidly melting glaciers, frequent landslides, cloudbursts and episodes of extreme rainfall have repeatedly devastated fertile agricultural land, destroyed livelihoods in the livestock sector, and caused acute food shortages. The destruction of health, education and transport infrastructure has left millions displaced and struggling to rebuild.
HANDS warns that the climate crisis is amplified by weak governance and inadequate infrastructure that turn natural events into humanitarian catastrophes. The organisation calls for a united global response that recognises the central role of the fossil fuel industry and complicit states in driving planetary harm. This case in Germany is positioned as part of a wider Climate Justice movement demanding systemic change.
Beyond legal remedies, HANDS and local Climate Justice Committees in Larkana and Jacobabad insist that immediate policy and financial measures are necessary. They demand cancellation of Pakistan’s foreign debt as part of genuine climate justice, free distribution of land to landless peasants through agrarian reform to secure sustainable livelihoods, and the fulfilment of the industrialised world’s pledge to release USD 100 billion per year to climate-affected nations.
HANDS also urges the withdrawal of all fossil fuel subsidies and accelerated investment in renewable energy, the removal of encroachments on natural waterways and expansion of drainage channels to handle heavy rainfall safely, and stronger National and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities to better prepare for future climate-induced events. The organisation says that promised financial and technological support to climate-affected countries must be delivered without delay to avert further humanitarian crises.
The forthcoming lawsuit aims to amplify the voices of small farmers and displaced communities in Sindh and to test legal avenues for corporate liability abroad. For HANDS, pursuing Climate Justice through litigation and coordinated policy demands represents a dual strategy: seek redress for immediate losses while pressing for structural changes that reduce future harm and protect Pakistan’s most vulnerable people.
