The government cuts the fund for improving air quality in the Po Valley in the budget law: environmental associations protest
A 75 per cent cut to resources earmarked for improving air quality in the Po Valley basin. This is among the many measures contained in the budget bill currently under discussion in the Senate, which drastically reduces — from 2026 to 2028 — the national fund designed to support regions and municipalities in the fight against smog in one of Europe's most polluted areas. A decision that all environmental associations, including Legambiente, describe as "serious and incomprehensible", and one that risks halting a process which, albeit slowly, was beginning to yield results.
The Fund for the Improvement of Air Quality in the Po Valley is set to be almost completely wiped out for the next three-year period under the budget plans, with any potential refinancing deferred to 2029–2031. In concrete terms, this means going from over 300 million euros to just over 100, undermining the implementation of regional plans and jeopardising compliance with European limits on atmospheric pollutants. According to Legambiente, the paradox is glaring: the cut comes precisely as the first positive signs are beginning to emerge. In Veneto, for instance, 2025 could close without exceeding the annual limit of 35 days above 50 micrograms per cubic metre of PM10 at the majority of monitoring stations — a result not seen in over twenty years. In Lombardy too, the trend, though fragile, is improving, while Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna are benefiting from integrated policies on sustainable mobility, agriculture and energy efficiency.
Halting these investments now means, according to the environmental association, abandoning structurally vulnerable territories: a closed, densely populated plain crossed by intense industrial, agricultural and logistics activity. The risk is not only environmental, but also health-related. Data from the European Environment Agency are unequivocal: in 2023, deaths attributable to PM2.5 in Europe numbered approximately 238,000, of which 43,000 were in Italy, concentrated largely in the Po Valley. Figures that give Italy the grim distinction of being the European country with the highest number of deaths linked to fine particulate pollution.
This is why Legambiente openly speaks of a "theft of resources" at the expense of 25 million citizens. Without adequate funding, many of the planned measures — from the renewal of public transport vehicles to interventions on domestic heating, through to less emission-intensive agricultural policies — risk being scaled back or scrapped entirely. With direct consequences for people's health and for Italy's exposure to new European infringement proceedings, fines and potential reductions in structural funds.
This situation is also part of a broader phase of regression in national environmental policies. From Italy's stance on the revision of the ban on gas boilers to the slowdown of the "Energy Performance of Buildings" directive, through to the absence of a credible implementation plan, the country appears to be heading in the opposite direction from scientific guidance and the international commitments reaffirmed at the recent COP in Belém.
For Legambiente, the path forward is clear: Parliament must immediately restore the earmarked resources and open a serious dialogue with regions and local authorities. Air quality, the association stresses, cannot be treated as an expendable budget line, but requires "continuous policies, guaranteed funding and effective coordination between the State, regions and municipalities".
