APCOM

In the early months of 2008, the air quality of Milano has improved, even if only slightly. This according to 4th edition of the Report on the State of the city's environment which has been presented today at Palazzo Reale. The document has been drafted by the Mobility and Environment Agency as part of local Agenda 21 and it focuses on three main issues: air quality, energy and physical agents of pollution.

As for air quality and in particular the PM10, the average annual concentrations measured in the atmosphere are stationary, as they are still exceeding the Limit Value of 50 mg/m3, while the Limit Value for daily average concentrations (40 mg/m3) has been exceeded many times during the year. In particular during the winter (132 days in 2007). However, the report underlines a slight improvement from January to March 2008 due to the introduction of the Ecopass system.

The energetic budget points out that the civil sector (heating and domestic uses) proves itself again as being the more responsible one, as for primary energetic consumptions (43.6%), followed by tertiary (37.55%) and transports (18.3%).

According to citizens' claims, registered by the Municipal police in 2006, acoustic pollution is one of the environments main pressures in urban areas. High-volume music (36.7%) is the kind of noise that mostly annoy Milanese people, while 24.7% of them can't stand 'squalls'.

Besides, the survey has disclosed a series of measures that the City Council will adopt in order to achieve the target indicated by the EU as for CO2 emissions' reduction (20% by 2020): development of areas provided with teleheating, incentives for the construction of energetically-equipped buildings and requalification of the existing ones. As for transports, the Ecopass won't be the only strong point: public transport will be strengthened, alternative systems and services (such as car sharing) will be promoted and in the meantime new bicycle paths will be built.