New regulations set long‑term environmental targets in four key areas

The Government has published environmental targets for four key areas: air quality, water, biodiversity, and resource efficiency and waste reduction.

The Environmental Governance (Targets) Regulations 2025 were published in the Gazette, and set long-term targets in four priority areas.

On air quality, the regulations set a date for the end of 2050 to match World Health Organisation guidelines on particulate matter.

For marine water quality, the aim is "Good environmental status".

Good environmental status is defined as providing ecologically diverse and dynamic oceans and seas, which are clean, healthy and productive - with a sustainable use of the marine environment.

The new regulations set the date for "Good environmental status" for the 31st of March 2040. This is much later than the 2020 date set by both the EU and UK, which both failed to meet.

On biodiversity, the aim is for natural habitats to form at least 43% of Gibraltar's overall land mass, and at least 58 square kilometres in its waters, by the end of 2050.

It also sets a target for the end of 2030 to bring a halt to the decline in the abundance of species in Gibraltar.

And, on waste reduction, the regulations set a target for the end of 2050 to bring down Gibraltar's residual waste to 136 kilogrammes per person per year.

This is significantly lower than the UK's 2042 target of 287 kilos per person.