Pauline Hélène "Polly" Higgins[1] FRSGS (4 July 1968 – 21 April 2019)[2] was a Scottish barrister, author, and environmental lobbyist, described by Jonathan Watts in her obituary in The Guardian as, "one of the most inspiring figures in the green movement".

[3] She left her career as a lawyer to focus on environmental advocacy, and unsuccessfully lobbied the United Nations Law Commission to recognise ecocide as an international crime.

Higgins wrote three books, including Eradicating Ecocide, and started the Earth Protectors group to raise funds to support the cause.

Higgins was born in Glasgow and raised in Blanefield, just south of the Highland Boundary Fault at the foot of the Campsie Hills in Scotland.

[4] Subsequently, she stopped practising as a barrister to focus on advocating for an international law that would hold business executives and governments to account by rendering them criminally liable for the environmental harm that they cause.

"[7] She lobbied the United Nations Law Commission to recognise ecocide as an international crime, but at the time of her death, this goal had not been achieved.

[1][13][14] In March 2019, Higgins was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and given about six weeks to live; her diagnosis was publicly disclosed at the time by George Monbiot.