While in Milan the total blockade of cars has been triggered and in Rome we go to alternate licence plates, the government plays the card of coordinating interventions to achieve more effective action. Environment Minister Galletti has called for Wednesday 30 December at the ministry a coordination meeting of interventions to combat smog in Italian cities. The presidents of the Region and the mayors of the large urban centers called to deal with the emergency have been invited. The Head of Civil Protection Fabrizio Curcio will also be present. The minister is working on a project to finance ecological public transport.
In Milan, the governor Roberto Maroni in turn called a summit with the mayors of Lombardy to coordinate action at the regional level and to evaluate the involvement of the other regions of the Po valley.
MILANO
In the Lombard capital, the Municipality has decided to completely block traffic throughout the municipal area for Monday 28, Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 December from 10 to 16. Meanwhile, the number of days in which the Pm97 values were exceeded in Milan reached 10 since the start of the year. The limit established by law, recalls Arpa (Regional Company for the Protection of the Environment), is no more than 35 days in a year. 2015 is therefore starting to become one of the "black" years for pollution after a couple of years with data that are always negative, but less worrying (in 2014 there were 77 days and last year 90). Since yesterday, there have been 33 consecutive days above the PM10 concentration limit in Milan.
Roma
Even the capital is suffocated by smog, thanks to the good weather and the lack of rain. Yesterday the most polluting motor vehicles were stopped (petrol motor vehicles «euro 0», «euro 1»; diesel motor vehicles «euro 0», «euro 1» and «euro 2»; motorcycles and mopeds with two, three, four 2 and 4-stroke wheels «euro 0» and «euro 1»; diesel microcars «euro 0» and «euro 1») and the heaters are stopped below 18 degrees.
As for the alternate number plates today, Monday December 28, cars with odd number plates stop e Tuesday those with the same plate (from 7.30 to 12.30 and from 16.30 to 20.30). For the first time, the normal 1,50 euro public transport ticket (Bit) will be valid for the whole day after the first validation. Commissioner Francesco Tronca has also asked Atac to arrange for an increase in the rides on the underground lines. On the other hand, the least polluting categories of vehicles will be allowed to circulate: methane, LPG, hybrids, Euro 6 and Euro 2 four-stroke two-wheeled mopeds and Euro 3 four-stroke motorcycles. Euro 0 and Euro 1 diesel as well as for Euro 2 and Euro 0 mopeds and motorcycles. Throughout the municipal area, the temperature for heating homes and offices must not exceed the maximum value of 1 degrees (with the exception of hospitals, clinics, schools and similar) and, concurrently with the ban on alternating number plates, the number of operating hours of the heating systems was reduced from 18 to 12.
