On September the 2nd and 3rd the Multi-country workshop on Air pollution from household heating will take place in Tallinn, Estonia as art of the UE programme TAIEX EIR PEER 2 PEER.

The event will be an occasion of confrontation and exchange between the environmental authorities of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Croazia and their peers from more advanced member states. As a matter of fact in these countries the use of solid fuels, such as wood, in domestic heating significantly contributes to air pollution.

The experience of project Prepair will be presented by the Autonomous Province of Trento in the secondo day during the session dedicated to PM 2.5 reduction.

For more information please download the agenda.

Last 11th of July, the Regional governments of the Po Basin together with the Autonomous Province of Trento met in Milan hosted by Regione Lombardia, for the first Midterm conference of LIFE Prepair Project.

The conference was the occasion to present the achievements of the first two project years and to take the stock of the situation on common strategies and future perspective regarding air quality in the critical context of the Po basin.

In the presence of Wilhelmus De Wilt as a representative of the European Commission, the participants to the 1st Midterm conference – among them the regional ministers Raffaele Cattaneo of Lombardia, Paola Gazzolo of Emilia Romagna, Matteo Marnati of Piemonte – discussed what has been done so far and the future perspective taking into account the recent signature of the protocl for air quality signed by the italian regional governments and the national ministry of environment at the Clean Air Dialogue in Turin, nearly a month ago.

The morning was dedicated  to present the advancement of the actions and the achievements of Prepair project. The project activities helped making clear that reducing the emission of pollutants by 40% in the Po basin is feasable, given the fast implementation of the action already planned and the use of new advanced technologies.

Among the results it was presented the first survey on the perception of air quality for the Po Basin.

An informal Networking session took place during lunch break with the participation of some of the projects part of the Prepair Network.

The afternoon section was more oriented to the perspectives and political strategies that were discussed in a round table by the representatives of the Po basin local governments and project partners.

Go to the speakers’ slides

Go to the video summary of the day (in italian)

Go to the video interviews (in italian)

Go to the gallery

 

 

The first survey on the citizens’ perception of the Air quality at Po Basin level.

On Thursday, July the 11th, at the Testori Auditorium in Milan, within the international conference “The Po basin together for the quality of air”, Marco Ottolenghi of Art-ER presented the results of “Citizen and Air Quality”, The first survey on the citizens’ perception of the Air quality at Po Basin level. The survey was carried out within the activities of Prepair project, ART-ER was responsible for the action.

The survey start from the fact that over 23 million people (40% of the population in Italy) live in the regions of the Po valley basin and over 50% of the Italian GDP is produced here. The atmospheric emissions in this basin are thus significant. However they are lower than the European Union average and in line with those of the most advanced countries, if compared to GDP or the number of inhabitants. This is a sign that the technological standards and management practices are among the most advanced.

Despite this, the orographic conformation and the particular meteorological and climatic conditions of the basin make the dispersion of pollutants particularly difficult, with above threshold values for dust, nitrogen oxides and ozone.

Atmospheric pollution in this area of Italy goes beyond local boundaries and requires a supra-regional approach- Integrated and coordinated measures need to be introduced over a vast area in order to reduce emissions and thus obtain a decrease of pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere.

“Valuta l’aria”‘s Survey (evaluate the air) inteded to investigate on the perception and awareness of citizens regarding the Air quality issue with a focus on the factors perceived as the main cause of air pollutions.

How do citizens in the Po Basin perceive this problem? Are they aware that many actions to improve air quality are closely linked to their lifestyle? How willing are they to change their habits? And above, how can local authorities get them to change these habits?

These are some of the questions covered by the survey which took place from 23 November 2018 to 10 January  2019 and aroused great interest in the entire area of the Po basin.  A total of 7,331 citizens voluntarily filled in the questionnaire. All 42 cities (provincial capitals) in the basin were involved, where a total of 6.5 million inhabitants live.

The results of the survey are avilable here:

Executive summary

Full report (italian)

  1. The EU perspective on how to address air quality in the coming years, De Wilt, European Commission DG Environment
  2.  The National Framework and the Protocol for the Quality of Air signed in the Clean Air Dialogue, Romeo, Ministero dell’Ambiene e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare
  3.  the project LIFE-IP PREPAIR Po Regions Engaged to Policies of Air (EN), Raffaelli, Regione Emilia-Romagna
  4. A common emission dataset for the Po Basin Area, Marongiu, ARPA Lombardia
  5. A web-based platform for monitoring Air Quality Plans, Tanzillo, ART-ER
  6. What future for the air quality in the Po Basin Area? A scenario based perspective, Stortini, ARPAE Emilia-Romagna
  7. The Data Sharing Portal, Cattani, ARPAE Emilia-Romagna
  8. Estimating and reducing the ammonia emission in agricolture: The BAT-Tool
    software (IT)
    ,
    Balboni, Regione Emilia-Romagna
  9. Opportunities and risks of burning woody biomass for domestic heating, Suppa, Regione Lombardia
  10. Action in promotion of Cycling Mobility, Lapi, Fondazione Lombardia Ambiente
  11. Toransition toward electric mobility in Venetian laguna: the contribution of the Boat registry for the port inspectors (IT), Zanin, Regione Veneto
  12. Air quality and sustainable mobility … at school (IT), Rossi, Comune di Bologna
  13. Energy efficiency for buildings: the importance of training for technicians and
    public officers(EN)
    ,
    De Biasi, Provincia Autonoma di Trento
  14. The Perception of citizens on Air Quality in Po Basin Area, Marco Ottolenghi, ART-ER
  15. The Prepaired! Actions in the schools, Vito, Fondazione Lombardia Ambiente
  16. Synergies and Complementarities among funds in the next Programming Period, Happaerts, European Commission, DG REGIO
  17. The Po Valley: results, scenarios and actions for air quality and the Po basin Agreements, Gurrieri, Regione Lombardia
  18. Air Quality management in the Po valley: the lesson learned by the Prepair project, Deserti, Regione Emilia-Romagna

THE FIRST MIDTERM CONFERENCE OF PREPAIR PROJECT

MILAN, JULY THE 11th 2019 – AUDITORIUM TESTORI, PIAZZA CITTA’ DI LOMBARDIA

A month after the CLEAN AIR DIALOGUE, which took place in Turin the 4th and 5th of June and after the signature of the new protocol on air quality by the Regions of the Po valley and the Italian Ministry of environment, the territorial government of the Po Basin meet again to take the stock of the situation of Air Quality.

The conference will be the occasion to confront on strategies and future perspective concerning the quality of air in the critical context of the Po valley territory, starting from the results achieved so far by the LIFE Prepair project.

The morning session will be dedicated to present the achievements of the partners’ work in the first 17 month of the Prepair project for each of the thematic pillars addressed: Transports, Biomass. Energy efficiency, Agriculture, Data evaluation, Communication and capacity building.

The afternoon session will be fully dedicated to the future perspectives and strategies for the improvement of Air quality in the Po basin. A topic that Prepair project will address until its end foreseen in December 2023.

During lunch break a networking session will make way for the projects part of the Prepair network.

The complete program is available in English and in Italian.

Every year, the European Commission (Directorate-General for Energy and the Executive Agency for SMEs) organizes the EUROPEAN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WEEK # #EUSEW2019 the largest event dedicated to renewable energy and efficient energy use in Europe.

The 14th edition will take place from 17 to 21 June 2019. This year’s theme is “Shaping Europe’s energy future – shaping Europe’s energyfuture”, which will cover a series of activities with a scope at EU level.

On 19 June, from 5.00 pm to 5.30 pm, at the Residence Palace, the Prepair Project will also be presented, within the Energy Talks.

The Autonomous Province of Trento, as responsible for coordinating the thematic pillar “energy efficiency”, will present the results achieved so far and the future prospects offered by Prepair.

The software “BAT-Tool” is available online, and it has been realized within the project’s actions of the agricultural sector.  The calculation tool makes it possible to estimate ammonia emissions starting from the data on the techniques applied in intensive pig and poultry farming and to compare different scenarios, providing also simplified information on other gases emitted by the plants.

The BAT-Tool software is a supporting tool in the review procedures of the Integrated Environmental Authorizations and for other obligations that require an assessment of emissions. It represents a first step towards the creation of a common farms emissions evaluation model of the Po basin, foreseen as a project output. Its final version will include other species bred in farms and other pollutants, and it will have an integrated approach between the different environmental components.

The BAT-Tool has been developed by the Emilia-Romagna Region together with the working group of PREPAIR, it has already undergone a test phase that involved technical experts of the sector in different regions and allowed to develop different aspects. The tool is now freely accessible after registering at the following link: http://www.crpa.it/battool

Among the already active functions, it is possible for plants manager to export the data inserted and use them for the presentation of questions or requests.

The user manual can be downloaded by our website’s page dedicated to the agricultural actions (Italian only).

The #EUGreenWeek will take place in Brussels from May 13 – 17: the week will be built around the findings of the Environmental Implementation Review, and its suggestions for the future of these laws.

EU Green Week 2019 will weigh up the findings of this Review, asking questions such as:

What benefits do EU environmental laws bring for citizens?
What does successful implementation look like?
Where are the problem areas?
How can stakeholders take ownership of these laws?
Most importantly, we will be looking at how the EU can facilitate the process, making sure that the voices of citizens are heard.

PREPAIR will also participate to the Green Week: our lead partner, the Emilia-Romagna region, will represent the project in two different sessions:
Peer learning from LIFE – Thursday, May 16 from 14:30 to 16:00 at the Green Cafè Tent

Cleaning the air, cutting industrial emissions – Friday, May 17 from 9:30 to 11:00 at Einstein

Find out more about the #EUGreenWeek

For the detailed program look here

An emissions inventory is an organized series of data about the amount of pollutants introduced into the atmosphere from natural sources and human activities, with particular reference to a specific period of time and a specific territorial area. An inventory of this kind has been developed within action A1 of PREPAIR: emission data of the Po basin and Slovenia for the year 2013 have been collected and analyzed; this area is 135,000 km2 wide and has 28 million inhabitants.

This database was obtained from the combination of local or national (for Slovenia) inventories developed in the different territorial areas and maintaining as much detail as possible on the types of emission sources and on the territories of the singles municipalities.

From a quantitative perspective, the emission data analysis of the Po basin regions confirms the relevance of the non-industrial combustion sector for the PM10 emissions, 56% of the total (59% for the whole domain), followed by road transport, 20% of the total emissions of PM10 (18% on the whole domain). Road transport represents also 50% of the total NOx emissions (51% on the PREPAIR domain), followed by industrial combustion (15% and 14% on the domain) and off-road vehicles (13% and 12% on the domain). The agriculture sector is confirmed as the main emission source of NH3 (97% of the total emissions).

Data confirm also that the Po basin represents a unique hot-spot in Europe. The Po valley is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe and yet the PM10 and NOx emissions per capita are lower than the average of EU28 countries (EEA, 2018). In fact, data demonstrate that PM10 emissions per capita in the Po basin are 3 Kg/person/year (3,4 kg/person/year for the PREPAIR domain) versus 4,3 kg/person/year of EU28 in 2013. Similarly, NOx emissions per capita are about 15 kg/person/year both for the Po basin and the PREPAIR domain versus 16,6 kg/person/year of EU28 in 2013.

The analysis of the emission data and of the emission estimation methodologies supported also the preliminary activities of those actions that will define and collect new data within the project.

The final report on the emission database and its abstract can be found in the section Documents & outputs of action Emissions dataset at this link.

 

On February 27, the launch conference of the life project VEG-GAP “Vegetation for urban green air quality plans” will take place in Bologna.

This event will be an opportunity for promoting new collaborations between universities, institutions, businesses and active citizens. PREPAIR will also be introduced by the lead partner, Emilia-Romagna Region, between the other projects and initiatives.

Read the program of the conference

Sign up for the event

Read more about the project