• The Council of Ministers has approved the National Action Plan for the Improvement of Air Quality: it will serve to bring Italy into line with European obligations.
• The four pillars are reducing agricultural emissions, sustainable mobility, building efficiency and public awareness.
• Air pollution still causes around 50,000 premature deaths every year in Italy.

Will just under two and a half billion euros be enough to improve air quality in our country, where many cities constantly exceed concentration limits for fine particles, PM2.5 and PM10? The Council of Ministers is giving it a try, and in recent days approved the National Action Plan for the Improvement of Air Quality, a strategic instrument to reduce atmospheric pollution and bring Italy into line with the obligations set out in European environmental legislation. The plan has a total allocation of €2.4 billion, of which €1.7 billion has been earmarked by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, and is the result of work by the Steering Committee established at the Presidency of the Council, in collaboration with Regions, local authorities and the relevant ministries.

The measures to improve air quality

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The Plan is structured around four main areas of intervention: the first concerns the reduction of agricultural emissions, through the adoption of low-emission techniques; the second, the promotion of sustainable mobility, with particular attention to local public transport, home-to-school and home-to-work commuting routes, and the development of sharing mobility: in this regard, €800 million in Mase funds will be allocated to municipalities for projects to develop public transport and reduce private traffic in urban centres. The third point relates to efforts for the efficiency improvement of domestic heating systems, favouring less polluting technologies over obsolete biomass installations. Finally, an information and awareness campaign is envisaged to encourage responsible behaviour among citizens.

Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin assures that this is an "ambitious yet realistic plan, which aims to reconcile health protection, environmental sustainability and economic-financial compatibility. A concrete response to European challenges and a clear signal to citizens and businesses: improving air quality is a shared commitment that can no longer be deferred." The Plan also provides for an incentive for cold ironing in ports, the electrification of port quaysides for sustainable, low-emission berthing: in practice, a discount on system charges to encourage moored vessels to use shore-based electricity. Another planned measure is the strengthening of controls on the most polluting domestic installations, in particular those fuelled by wood biomass.

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23 giu 2025 · Apri su X →

Finally, the plan introduces a structured monitoring and multi-level governance system, based on cooperation between central, regional and local administrations, to ensure effective and shared implementation of the measures. The model is grounded in the principles of integration, accountability and participation: all administrations, from the most local to the national government, will work towards the same goal of achieving a systemic and lasting transformation in the management of air quality in Italy.

The plan is welcome, but it must move quickly

But will it be enough? For now, the plan amounts to objectives and intentions written on paper: everything will depend on how, and above all how quickly, it is implemented. Because the emergency is not a future prospect — it is already here and now: according to the recent report Mal'Aria di città 2025 by Legambiente, 71 per cent of Italian provincial capitals (to say nothing of the Po Valley) would already today exceed the new European limits for PM10, and almost half would exceed those for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂).

The new EU directive, in force from 2030, will halve annual limits for fine particles, obliging cities such as Milano, Vicenza and Palermo to cut emissions by as much as 40–50 per cent. According to the same report, air pollution still causes around 50,000 premature deaths every year in Italy. In this context, the National Plan appears to be a good starting point, but one that still lacks the concrete substance needed to meet the most stringent health and environmental targets. Rapid and structural action will be required; otherwise the risk is that Italy falls behind, with public health once again paying the price.