APCOM

Climate change and the environmentally friendly initiatives adopted by the Milan municipality will be at the center of Mayor Letizia Moratti's speech at the United Nations, scheduled for mid February. The prestigious invitation came directly from the Un Assembly president Srgjan Kerim, after a meeting with the Mayor at the Palazzo Marino during the opening of the season of the Scala on December the 8th.

"During these days - as Mrs Moratti herself explained receiving the invitation - Milan has opened up to the world and has welcomed Prime ministers, members of government, mayors and delegates from over 40 countries. A cultural event but also a chance to discuss important issues". Among these is precisely climate change, the main theme of the Expo 2015 Milan bid. An issue the municipality of Milan is particularly committed to as the latest measures introduced by the administration prove. Among these is the Ecopass - the congestion charge drivers must pay to enter the center of the city - developed alongside the improvement of public transport such as the extension of the number 5 Garibaldi-San Siro metropolitan line with the addition of further 19 tube stations and of line 4 Lorenteggio-Linate, which has undergone a 15 km extention.

The creation of new green areas with half a million trees planted and the extra 50 new cycling paths created, in addition to the already existing 67, are just a few of the other environmentally friendly measures adopted in the last few months by the Milan municipality. The utilization of renewable energy for the heating of 400 thousand citizens of Milan and the conspicuous joint financial investements of the Lombardia Region and the Milan municipality - which together sum up to 55 million euros worth of incentives for the replacement and the purchase of new non polluting heating systems - are just a few of the other measures adopted that Mrs Moratti is expected to outline in her speech in New York.