Climate lawsuit by Pakistani farmers: RWE considers claim for damages unfounded

Several farmers from Pakistan have filed a lawsuit against RWE and Heidelberg Materials at the Heidelberg Regional Court. This is according to a press release from the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), an NGO supporting the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are claiming damages for the effects of severe flooding in Pakistan in the summer of 2022.

The background to their lawsuit is the allegation that RWE, as one of Germany's largest energy producers, has contributed significantly to climate change through CO₂emissions and thus to the intensity and frequency of such extreme weather events.

RWE's legal assessment of climate lawsuits such as this one is well known: Civil liability of German companies for global climate damage is massively damaging to Germany as an industrial location and removes legal certainty in general as law-abiding German companies cannot be sure that they will not be sued for damages from all over the world.

The lawsuit is yet another attempt to shift climate policy demands to German courtrooms. RWE considers the approach on the part of NGOs of asserting claims against German companies for climate damage anywhere in the world to be legally inadmissible. RWE has always operated its plants in accordance with applicable law.

It would be a contradiction in terms if the state allowed CO₂ emissions, regulated them by law and even demanded them in some cases, but at the same time allowed retroactive civil liability for them.

Comparable climate lawsuits – for example, against Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW – have been dismissed by German courts in both the first and second instances because no injunction can be justified against individual emitters if they comply with applicable public legislation. A climate lawsuit against RWE was also dismissed as unfounded by the Higher Regional Court of Hamm in May 2025. The proceedings lasted more than nine years.

RWE's strategy is in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. The company is decarbonising its business in line with the 1.5-degree reduction path – scientifically confirmed by the Science-Based Target Initiative. Since 2018, RWE has more than halved its CO₂ emissions. RWE is the only German company to phase out lignite by 2030. The company will be climate neutral by 2040.