Abstract

A large portion of the Italian population is exposed to high air pollution levels exceeding both European and WHO standards. To face this serious environmental risk, several efforts have been undertaken at policy-administration level in Italy and a national-regional cooperation act (the Po Basin Agreement, PBA) was adopted in 2013 in Northern Italy. The signatory parties agreed to identify and implement concerted actions contrasting air pollution, in addition to measures already in place. In this paper, a first evaluation of the identified measures has been carried out using the MINNI model, an integrated assessment model that allows the impact evaluation of emission variations. Assuming that PBA measures are applied in the whole Italian territory and focusing on residential heating, road transport and agriculture, the consequent impact on air quality was assessed for the scenario years 2020 and 2030. The Current Legislation scenario for the year 2030 shows that neither the national emission ceilings (NEC) nor the European air quality standards would be reached with the measures already in place and that additional actions are needed. The PBA 2030 scenario shows the attainment of the NEC targets, but non-compliance for daily PM10, daily maxima of 8 h running means of O 3 and annual PM2.5 concentrations still remains. • The integrated assessment model MINNI was applied to study the Po Basin Agreement measures for reducing air pollution. • The 2030 CLE scenario does not allow to reach neither the NEC emission ceilings nor the EU air quality standards. • The 2030 PBA scenario would allow the attainment of the NEC ceilings but not the attainment of the AQ standards.

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