Milan submits climate action plan to citizens for comments

This is the first Italian city to prepare such a strategic document

Since the beginning of this week, 12 January, residents of Milan have the chance to get acquainted and submit their views and opinions on the proposed Piano Aria Clima (or Air Climate Plan), which will seek to bring the city to carbon neutrality in steps by 2050. The option to view and comment will be available for 45 after 12 January, as required per law.

With this action plan, Milan becomes the first Italian municipality to take such a concrete commitment to the goals of greener urban transformation and lifestyle.

The Plan consists of 49 concrete actions

Although the long-term goal is the year 2050, there are intermediate milestones that need to be reached first and these have been set for 2025 and 2030. The strategy also builds on positive policies from the past but also includes new considerations such as public health, which were borne out of the circumstance that arose during the past year.

The document also showcases how the city authorities view the transformation. This happens through 5 lenses, or thematic areas – health, connectivity and accessibility, energy, temperature and awareness.

Some of the more ambitious goals stated in the Air Climate Plan are: a desire to reduce car traffic by half and replace it with more available and accessible public transit (subway and light rail); sharp increase of cycling lanes across the districts of the city; converting to vertical parking lot structures in order to reclaim more land and free up roads.

Traffic and pollution will also get reduced by organizing a better system of logistics freight traffic in and out of the city. In terms of recycling, Milan is already among the top five big cities in the world, but authorities believe that even more can be done, and the goal is to reach 75% recycling rate by 2028.

There are also specific plans for increasing urban forestation by planting more trees and the installation of solar panels to provide renewable sources of energy.