Legal right to a healthy environment

The problem

When we breathe dirty air, eat food grown in toxic soils, spend our time indoors to escape pollution, and swim in water filled with sewage, it impacts our health. And if the environment around us is also in declining health – if trees are being cut down, pollinators are in decline, soils and waters are leached of nutrients and loaded with pollutants – then the risks to people can only increase.

Flooding, heatwaves and storms caused by climate change, along with the destruction of precious nature, are making things even worse. It’s easy to see the disastrous consequences of an unhealthy environment.

Environmental harm is often caused by the actions of big businesses, developers, and even our decision makers. And those who are already disadvantaged or discriminated against are bearing the brunt of this harm. At home and across the world, millions of people on low incomes, disabled people and racialised communities are living in unhealthy environments. Our Planet Over Profit work is campaigning for a new law to stop UK companies causing harm overseas. But we need action across the UK too.

The solution

At Friends of the Earth, we’re campaigning for the UK government to pass a law that recognises the right to a healthy environment as a human right. The Scottish government has already consulted on doing just that through a Human Rights Bill for Scotland. And the government in Westminster has signed up to various internal commitments recognising the right to a healthy environment – but they haven’t put it into law in the UK.  

We want to change that. If there was a legal right to a healthy environment, it could encourage the government and other decision makers to make better choices to protect people and nature – in the same way they have a duty to protect our other human rights.  

If the right to a healthy environment was enshrined in law, it would allow people to defend themselves should they or their local environment be put at risk. For example:

• families who find themselves in mould and damp filled housing could take their local authority or social housing provider to court
• residents living near a new planned road which would increase pollution (and worsen health conditions) could launch legal action.

They wouldn’t need to prove that our government missed targets set around a national average or wait until the unhealthy environment leads to a tragic death, as in the cases of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah or Awaab Ishak. Instead, they could focus on the quality and health of their local environment – right here, right now. They could make links between planning policy and enforcement failures, and their own right to a healthy environment.

This would offer a way to secure the enforcement and remedial action that communities need to guarantee homes that provide everyone with a safe and healthy living environment.

What you and your group can do

Right now, we want to tell as many people as we can about the difference a right to a healthy environment could make. We want to make sure that the entire Friends of the Earth network knows about how powerful an Environmental Rights Act could be and offer you ways to get involved. There are some resources and ways to engage below.  

This May, we launched a spoof video to highlight the issue of water pollution and ask people to sign our record of public support for a new Environmental Rights Act (ERA). Find out how your group can take part.

Now we’re ramping up the pressure on the new government to persuade them to commit to make a healthy environment a human right and we need your help to do this.

Postcard action

We've launched an action to send physical postcards to MPs. This will help make sure they hear our calls to protect nature and our environment loud and clear. If you’re short on time, use our online tool to choose from a range of postcard designs to raise your key concerns about issues like polluted waterways which are impacting the health of where you live.  

If you’ve got a bit more time on your hands, you can also download and print the postcards (both English and Welsh versions available) so you can collect messages from your local community. 

You could even work with local partners to organise a postcard-writing event ahead of a meeting with your MP. This way you can collect messages from a diverse range of voices across your community to hand deliver to your MP when you meet them in person. Find out more about preparing to meet with your MP here.

Support and resources

• Read an outline of what an Environmental Rights Bill could do for people and nature. 
• Read the article co-written by Friends of the Earth Head of Political affairs Dave Timms, about the case for an Environmental Rights Bill.
• Read a draft Environmental Rights Bill, written by environmental lawyers to show what a new law could look like.  
• Watch our webinar for local action groups and find out more about how a legally enforceable human right to a healthy environment in the UK could make a difference to people and nature.
• Read our guide on water pollution and how you can campaign for an Environmental Rights Act as part of our Sh*t Beach spoof in May 2024.
• If you have any feedback questions, please drop [email protected] an email.