Milan Approves Air Climate Plan, Establishes Guide Toward Carbon Neutrality By 2050

The City Council of Milan, Italy recently approved its Piano Aria e Clima (or Air Climate Plan – PAC), which will act as a guide for the city to become carbon neutral by the year 2050. PAC makes Milan the first Italian municipality to take such a concrete commitment to the goals of greener urban transformation and lifestyle. The city of Milan has envisioned itself in 2050 as being healthy and inclusive; connected and highly accessible; having positive energy; being cooler; and being aware.

PAC is organized along the following lines: 

  • promote actions that pursue the equity, health, safety, and well-being of citizens;
  • promote pedestrian and bicycle mobility to reduce the dependence on private motorized vehicles; 
  • stimulate the processes of regeneration and renewal of the building infrastructure in order to enhance the quality of construction and urban planning; 
  •  promote the development and use of renewable resources as an alternative to fossil ones; 
  •  significantly increase the green areas in the city to prevent the formation of heat islands and to reduce the risk of flooding, as well as to enhance the livability of the public space; 
  •  protect, safeguard, and conserve the soil and its quality; 
  •  enhance water resources, limiting waste and promoting sustainable uses;  
  •  promote the circular economy and reuse, to reduce waste and make waste a new material and energy source; 
  •  consider sustainability as a fundamental element in public procurement; and
  •  increase and strengthen citizens’ awareness of their impact on emissions into the atmosphere and on the increase in the average urban temperature, while also offering them alternatives for different lifestyles.

One example being addressed is the creation of a more cycle-pedestrian city, with a 30 km per hour speed limit to reduce vehicular traffic in favor of soft and zero-emission mobility. Cars with high polluting emissions will no longer be able to circulate within the city and Euro 5 diesel will be gradually excluded from entering the city in the fall of this year.