Thematic sites - Municipality of Milan

On the occasion of Earth Day, on Monday 22 April 2024, the municipal administrations of Milan, Bologna, Turin, Venice and Treviso signed the "Covenant of Mayors for a breathing Po Valley.

​​​​​​​Covenant of Mayors for a breathing Po Valley.
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In recent years and in particular in recent months, in all our Municipalities, the level of air pollution has exceeded the permitted limits too many times and this represents a risk for the health and well-being of the population.

Our Constitution states, in article 32, that health is a fundamental right of the individual: throughout the Charter only the right to health is characterized as "fundamental", understood in the etymological sense of "foundation" of all other rights .

Pollution of soil, water and air constitutes a constant threat to the psychophysical well-being of our citizens. Health and environmental protection are therefore an increasingly inseparable combination of our era on which it is necessary to orient political action and strategies in the coming years. 

Breathing clean air is a fundamental right of everyone and all of us, as Mayors and Mayoress, local administrators, are called to do our part starting from our territories, committing ourselves to promoting measures that are increasingly attentive to the environment.

We are aware, however, that when we talk about air we cannot limit ourselves to wearing the lenses of the municipal perimeter, as if a border drawn by man could stop the air, but we must necessarily consider the entire Po Valley.

La air quality in the Po Valley it is strongly influenced by its geographical conformation, being located in a depression where smog and dust tend to accumulate.
Furthermore, we are talking about an area in which there is a massive presence of anthropic activities: over 20 million inhabitants live there and more than 50% of the national GDP is generated there.

The climate crisis entails increasingly extreme weather phenomena such as more frequent and long-lasting periods of drought, alternating with increasingly violent rains, which contribute to the accumulation of pollutants, compromising air quality even further.

There is no doubt and record that the levels of fine particles have almost halved since 2002, but this is not enough.
As Mayors and Mayoress, local administrators of the Municipalities of the Po Valley, we want to say that we are there and we want to reiterate our concrete commitment to promoting, in all our administrations, virtuous measures for the environment: we are committed to replace all municipal oil boilers, to continue plant new trees, to promote measures aimed at decongest the Municipalities from vehicular traffic, to invest in public transport and to encourage the use of more sustainable means of travel.

We are also aware that our forces, but above all our resources, are not enough and for this reason we ask, with a single and strong voice, Italy and Europe to be at our side on the front line. 

We ask the Italian Government to urgently make available investments dedicated to reducing the negative impact on the environment of the transport of people and goods and of agricultural and industrial activities.

We ask for concrete investments in the financing and sustainability of local public transport, especially in the transition to electric vehicles.

We also ask for extraordinary funds for plans to replace obsolete boilers and, more generally, for the energy efficiency of buildings and urban reforestation, quickly and with an agile and efficient delivery system. 

We ask the European Union to do its part: because the Po Valley area is one of the most critical cases, due to its territorial characteristics and high population and production density. We believe the only solution is an extraordinary plan at all levels. The issue of air quality cannot be addressed only occasionally and on a municipal scale: it is a continuous and constant challenge that involves all the actors in the territory. 

We ask for strong coordination of actions, also through a special commissioner structure, which, in agreement with our bodies and also involving the Regions, helps us to identify possible actions and objectives; that will help us reach them also through the provision of funds and resources, to be added to those of the Government, to deal with the many interventions. 

The Mayor of Milan 
The Mayor of Bologna 
The Mayor of Turin 
The Mayor of Venice 
​​​​​​​The Mayor of Treviso