INTERVIEW - Northern Italy's smoggy Lombardy plans car phase-out
Date: 29-Jan-02
Country: ITALY
Author: William Schomberg
Smog soared recently to more than five times permitted levels, and Roberto Formigoni told Reuters he was counting on Europe's automobile industry to come up with electric, gas and other alternative fuels.
"I want to establish a date, for example January 1 2005 or it could be before January 1 2006, after which all new cars that are sold will be ecological," he said in an interview in Milan, Lombardy's smoggy capital.
"I have sent out a message to the European automobile industry," Formigoni said. "This kind of research must be sped up. And a major region like Lombardy can provide a major boost with funding, research and time."
Formigoni said it was too early to estimate the cost to public coffers of a switch-over to clean cars, but said Lombardy planned to spend 60 million euros ($52 million) on new electric buses, research on hydrogen fuels and water-heater conversions.
An estimated four million vehicles are on Lombardy's roads.
Yesterday, the day after Formigoni spelled out his clean car plans to a local newspaper, representatives of carmakers Fiat , Peugeot-Citroen and BMW were on the phone to discuss ideas, he said.
GOVERNMENT CAUTIOUS
Traffic accounts for nearly 80 percent of the microscopic pollution particles that clog the air in Lombardy and other regions of northern Italy, hemmed in by the Alps to the north and the Appenine mountains to the south.
Rainless, windless weather has shrouded Milan in a thick smog haze for much of this winter and triggered bans on vehicles across Lombardy on three Sundays since December.
Last week authorities ordered cars, motorcycles and trucks off the roads on alternate days but pollution levels still broke Lombardy's so-called "alarm level" for eight straight days. The emergency finally subsided after a bout of rain.
Other cities in Italy have also been hit by traffic bans, from industrial centre Turin in the northwest to capital Rome.
Business leaders grumble about the hassle of traffic bans but doctors say the human cost of the smog can be deadly. Pollution is estimated to claim 180 lives a year among Lombardy's nine million population and prolonged exposure to the particles has been linked to tumour growth and chronic illness.
Formigoni's plans have met with a cautious welcome from Italy's government, drawing up its own anti-pollution plans.
Environment Minister Altero Matteoli told the newspaper Corriere della Sera yesterday that he backed the phase-out idea but questioned whether such a major move was possible by 2005.
Fiat, which makes about a quarter of the cars on Italian roads, has been building vehicles powered by electric batteries for more than 10 years and is working on a hydrogen-powered car.
"We are ready with the technology but there is not yet a national network of natural gas and hydrogen distribution points," said a spokesman for Fiat. "This is something that has to be approached at government level."
Formigoni said he would begin talks with business leaders, consumers and other organisations to draft a proposal within 12 months on how to phase out petrol and diesel cars.
(additional reporting by Antonella Ciancio).
