The letter, coordinated by organisations including Friends of the Earth, Wildlife & Countryside Link, and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS), follows an intervention from UN appointed experts on human rights and the environment, who added their voice to the growing calls for an Additional Protocol recognising the right.

Today, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ Drafting Group on Human Rights and the Environment will decide whether to move forward in drafting an Additional Protocol recognising the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in the European Convention.

The move is backed by countries including Portugal, Slovenia, Iceland, Georgia, and France, but the UK has yet to make its position clear.

The Council of Europe remains the only regional human rights system in the world that has not yet recognised this right. Though 42 of the 46 member states acknowledge it nationally or regionally, legal protection remains inconsistent across borders.

Shivali Fifield, chief officer at the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS), said: “We face the triple planetary crisis of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and the widespread pollution of our air, land and water.

“Environmental damage and human suffering are two sides of the same coin and Europe should guarantee legal protections for communities exposed to environmental harm if we are to address the root causes and intersections of social, environmental and climate injustice.

“We urge the UK government to demonstrate their commitment to upholding our human and environmental rights by voting to recognise our universal human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”