“We have worked to redefine the area subject to any bans” for euro 5 diesel vehicles in Florence, “bans that will only come into effect from 1 June on the basis of monitoring: the area will be limited to that of the avenues between piazza Beccaria and piazza of Freedom. This is because we have a concentration problem and our goal is to bring it down. The bans will be triggered if there is not a reduction in pollutants compatible with the goal of staying below the threshold of 40 micrograms per cubic metre”. This was announced by the councilor for the environment of Florence Andrea Giorgio in a conference with the regional councilor for the environment Monia Monni on the protocol which allows to block, at least temporarily, the limitations of diesel vehicles euro 5 in Florence.
“In the meantime – he added – we are certainly putting 12 million in incentives in the field, which will serve to support families and businesses to change transport, facilitate LPT, promote the use of bicycles”.
If the data does not improve, Giorgio added, “from 1 June” there will be limits for “diesel cars registered in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In that case, for the first block, there are about 500 cars owned by residents of the city of the ban because they circulate in that area. The number of cars that may be subject to all blocks is approximately 1,900. The first monitoring will be done at the end of April, the second at the end of July and the third at the end of September: if we don’t achieve the results further blocks and bans will be progressively implemented until all euro 5 diesels are involved”. Giorgio made “an appeal to the Florentines to collaborate, if we all work in this direction we will be able to avoid further blockages. According to data from Legambiente and the Environment Agency, 60,000 people die prematurely each year from diseases related to to air pollution in cities. At the moment there are 19,000 Euro 5 diesel vehicles registered in the city: we will gradually increase the measures until the desired impact is obtained, i.e. obtaining that No2 concentrations are below the minimum threshold”. “We then asked At to move the polluting buses from that stretch of avenue,” he specified.
“It must be specified – said the regional councilor for the environment Monia Monni – that we are not intervening on the basis of an environmental habit, as someone has claimed in recent days, but we are intervening to protect public health because nitrogen dioxide emissions in the case of Florence, like that of PM10 in the Lucchese and Pistoia plains, they are now clearly correlated to public health”.
“We also intervene to respond to a sentence of the European Court of Justice – he added – and we do so precisely by trying to improve air quality by keeping together the theme of environmental improvement with that of social stability which is the main theme and more delicate than the transition”.
Source: Ansa
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