Part 1: Environmental Governance Chapter 1: Improving the natural environment Section 1: Environmental targets
Section 1 provides a power for the Secretary of State to set long-term targets by regulation.
	Subsection (1) provides the Secretary of State with a power to set long-term targets in relation to the natural environment and people's enjoyment of it. The natural environment is defined in section 44 (meaning of "natural environment"). This definition includes living and non-living elements of the environment, such as plants, wildlife, their habitats, air, water and land, natural systems and processes through which organisms interact with their surroundings. As such, the definition extends to the marine environment, as well as the terrestrial and water environments. Targets relating to people’s enjoyment of the natural environment may relate to its use, access to natural areas or a measure of public views about the environment. Among other initiatives, enjoyment may be increased through education and public awareness of the natural environment both past and present.
	Subsection (2) requires the Secretary of State to set at least one long-term target in each of four priority areas. Subsection (3) defines those priority areas as air quality, water, biodiversity, and resource efficiency and waste reduction. Section 4(9) requires that a draft statutory instrument (or instruments) satisfying the requirement in subsection (2) must be laid before Parliament by 31 October 2022.
	Subsection (4) requires all long-term targets set under this section to specify an objectively measurable standard to be achieved and a date by which this standard must be achieved.
	A specified standard might be the exposure of a certain area to damaging levels of ammonia in the atmosphere, for example. The method for objective measurement should be clear and repeatable, with results reproducible within reason. The process of setting targets will necessarily involve some choices as to how a target will be measured. Subsection (5) provides that regulations made under this section may make provision specifying how a target will be measured.
	Subsection (6) provides that long-term targets must have a minimum duration of 15 years.
	Subsection (7) clarifies that a target is initially set once the regulations setting it come into force. This is relevant to calculating the specified date (that is, the duration) of long-term targets under this section. Subsection (8) provides that, in Part 1, the terms "specified standard" and "specified date" mean the standard and date specified in subsection (4).
	By virtue of section 2(6) and section 3(5), subsections (4) to (9) also apply to the PM2.5 air quality target set under section 2 and the species abundance target set under section 3.
	This section, and sections 2 to 7, extend to England and Wales. Subsection (9) prevents the Secretary of State from making provision in regulations made under this section that could be made in an Act of Senedd Cymru. The regulations made under this section can therefore make provision relating to the natural environment in England (including the English inshore area), as well as in the offshore area (to the extent that Her Majesty’s Government has functions).