The Chamber has approved the second postponement in two years of the ban on Euro 5 diesel vehicles in the four Po Valley regions: the new deadline is 1 October 2027.
The ban on Euro 5 diesel vehicles in Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna is being pushed back once again: from 1 October 2026, a deadline that had already passed, to 1 October 2027. This is the outcome of a vote held this week in the Chamber of Deputies, which must now be followed by a vote in the Senate — the result of which is, however, already a foregone conclusion: this would be the second postponement in two years of a measure designed to reduce air pollution in the Po Valley, one of the areas in Europe most exposed to concentrations of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide.
Underlying the decision to postpone the measure are, in particular, the difficulties faced by a large proportion of the affected population in replacing their vehicle with a more modern and less polluting one — a switch that is, of course, also financially demanding. Pushing back the deadline, however, does not address the problem at its root: it provides neither adequate incentives nor structural measures for those who depend on their car to work and access essential services.
Euro 5 diesel and the Po Valley: a story that began in 2023
The story begins in 2023, when the introduction of structural restrictions on Euro 5 diesel vehicles in the four regions of the Po basin was set for 1 October 2025. The following year came the first postponement to 2026, along with an increase in the population threshold for the municipalities concerned from 30,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, and the possibility of adopting compensatory measures. Now decree-law 167 of 28 September 2026, just approved by the Chamber, pushes the deadline back further to 2027. A deferral that does not, in the meantime, entail any new investment to accelerate the uptake of alternatives to the car, such as strengthening public transport, improving rail connections, or at least introducing incentives to support vehicle renewal and encourage the transition to less polluting means of transport.
Yet, as deputy and environmental economist Patty L'Abbate — one of the most vocal opponents of the postponement — points out, the transition should not be seen as a cost to be deferred, but as an investment to improve quality of life and reduce inequalities.
"As Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, the father of modern bioeconomics, taught us, the economy is a physical process that uses energy and matter and cannot escape the laws of thermodynamics. A mobility system that consumes large quantities of fossil fuels, produces harmful emissions and imposes high costs on families is inefficient both ecologically and economically."
The issue is, first and foremost, one of public health. According to the European Environment Agency, in 2023 approximately 182,000 deaths in the European Union were attributed to exposure to PM2.5 concentrations above the recommendations of the World Health Organisation. In Italy, estimates exceed 43,000 premature deaths associated with fine particulate matter and 9,000 linked to nitrogen dioxide. These figures refer to overall air pollution and cannot be attributed directly to Euro 5 diesel vehicles alone, but they illustrate the scale of an emergency that continues to affect, above all, the most densely urbanised and industrialised areas.
The weight of transport on national emissions also remains significant. According to the Istituto superiore di protezione e ricerca ambientale (Ispra), in 2024 the sector accounted for approximately 59.4 per cent of nitrogen oxide emissions and 16.2 per cent of primary PM2.5 emissions. Figures that make the transformation of mobility a central issue, especially in a territory such as the Po Valley, where geographical and meteorological conditions favour the accumulation of pollutants.
Transport poverty: what alternatives do we have to the car?
There is also a less visible but equally important social dimension: transport poverty. The rapporto Povertà dei trasporti in Italy, published in October 2026 by Transport & Environment and produced by TESSA, a spin-off of the University of Tuscia, estimates that 18.46 per cent of Italian households — around 4.9 million — struggle to meet the costs of mobility. Some 643,000 low-income households are particularly exposed to rising fuel prices, while in 766 municipalities a lack of alternatives to the car creates conditions of severe hardship. Fifty-seven per cent of the families most vulnerable to fuel costs live in the South. This is the phenomenon of forced car ownership: households that do not necessarily choose to own a car but are compelled to do so in order to get to work, take their children to school or reach a healthcare facility. Fuel, insurance and maintenance thus become expenses that are hard to cut, draining resources from the family budget. For L'Abbate, the answer cannot simply be to postpone the bans, but to build concrete alternatives: more efficient local public transport, regional railways, shared mobility, integrated fares and incentives for fleet renewal aimed above all at lower-income families and small businesses — a transformation that could also generate new industrial and employment opportunities.
On the European front, moreover, Italy must contend with infringement proceedings for exceeding air quality limits: in 2020 the EU Court of Justice condemned the country over PM10, and in 2022 over nitrogen dioxide. According to data cited by the Court of Auditors, by 31 December 2024 the accumulated environmental penalties amounted to around 888 million euros. The issue, therefore, goes beyond the fate of one category of cars. It concerns the mobility model of a country that must reconcile health protection, economic accessibility and competitiveness. Because, as L'Abbate points out, "continuing to push back deadlines without investing in alternatives means leaving families with the cost of inaction and also forgoing the economic and employment opportunities linked to the transition."
