Law Decree 177 on environment and climate: 11 million to municipalities

The Government has issued Decree-Law No. 177 of October 8, 2026, published in the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, General Series No. 234 of October 8, 2026, containing “Urgent provisions for the strengthening of environmental investigations, the management of climate issues, the circular economy, and remediation” (26G00199). The text is signed by the President of the Republic Mattarella, upon the proposal of the President of the Council of Ministers Meloni and the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Pichetto Fratin. It entered into force on October 9, 2026, and will be presented to the Chambers for conversion into law.

The measure, adopted following the deliberation of the Council of Ministers on October 2, 2026, consists of six articles and intervenes on four fronts: environmental investigations, unpredictable climate events, circular economy, and remediation. The preamble refers, among other sources, to Legislative Decree No. 152 of April 3, 2006, Decree-Law No. 153 of October 17, 2024, converted by Law No. 191 of December 13, 2024, and Decree-Law No. 116 of August 8, 2025, converted by Law No. 147 of October 3, 2025, regarding the “Land of Fires.” The choice is motivated by the “extraordinary necessity and urgency” to face environmental and climate issues and to ensure the effective implementation of remediation interventions.

Environmental investigations and integrated authorizations

Article 1 amends part two of Legislative Decree 152/2006:

• in Article 8, paragraph 2-bis, “screening for EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) eligibility” are inserted;
• in Article 25, paragraph 2-ter, cost coverage is set, from 2026, within the limit of 5 million euros per year to be drawn from the proceeds of the tariffs referred to in Article 33, paragraph 1;
• for investigations by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security on the renewal and review of state integrated environmental authorizations, an expenditure of 500,000 euros for 2027 is authorized.

The 11 million fund for municipalities

Article 2 establishes in the budget forecast of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security the “Investment Fund for the management of unpredictable events related to the environment and climate”, with 11 million euros per year starting from the year 2027. The fund finances investments by municipalities for events that do not give rise to emergencies pursuant to Article 7, paragraph 1, letters b) and c), of the Civil Protection Code (Legislative Decree No. 1 of January 2, 2018), related to:

• waste cycle crises;
• conservation of native flora and fauna, including river, lake, and marine species;
• ecological deterioration phenomena, including those affecting waters;
• further effects of climate change.

A decree from the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, in agreement with the Minister of Economy and Finance, to be adopted within ninety days, will define the application, evaluation criteria, disbursement, and reporting. The cap is 1 million euros per single event; revocation is ordered if, within one hundred and eighty days, the municipality has not entered into legally binding obligations. Municipalities may make use of in-house companies, with costs covered within 1 percent of the funding.

Circular economy and excavated earth and rocks

Article 4 intervenes in part four of Legislative Decree 152/2006:

• new article 185-ter: for excavated earth and rocks qualified as waste (codes 17.05.04 or 17.05.03*), the storage limits increase to 4,000 cubic meters, of which a maximum of 800 cubic meters of hazardous waste;
• direct reuse at specific construction sites, up to 20 cubic meters, even without prior environmental characterization;
• transparency obligations and abstention for conflicts of interest in the administrative bodies of organizations and consortia;
• replacement of traditional fuels with CSS-fuel in plants authorized for R1 operations: it is not a substantial modification for the purposes of integrated environmental authorizations if it does not increase production capacity and respects the limit values, with notification to the competent authority and a deadline of forty-five days;
• extension from December 31, 2026, to December 31, 2030, of the deadline in article 4, paragraph 5-bis, of Decree-Law No. 17 of March 1, 2022;
• beverage bottle producers shall annually communicate to the National Packaging Consortium the quantities placed on the market and the amount of recycled plastic.

Remediation and Land of Fires

Article 5 modifies the regulations on remediation. The ordinance under article 244, paragraph 3, of Legislative Decree 152/2006 is adopted within one hundred and fifty days; in case of inertia, the region assigns the province a deadline not exceeding thirty days and, if this expires without action, the region itself adopts the ordinance with the technical support of the National Network System for Environmental Protection. The annexes on remediation are integrated with the environmental characterization criteria for marine areas in sites of national interest.

For the “Land of Fires” area, the resources from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers quota are allocated, up to 200 million euros, for recovery and remediation by the Sole Commissioner. The fund is increased by 10 million euros for 2026, 10.9 million for 2027, and 9.7 million for each of the years 2028, 2029, and 2030; for the Commissioner’s structure, an expenditure of 1 million euros is authorized for each year from 2027 to 2030.

The decree directly affects municipalities and businesses: the former can access a fund dedicated to unpredictable climatic events, with a ceiling of one million euros per event; the latter operate within a simplified framework regarding excavated earth and rocks, CSS-fuel, and integrated environmental authorizations. The text is now under review by the Chambers for conversion into law.

Source: Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, General Series no. 234 of October 8, 2026 — Decree-Law October 8, 2026, n. 177 (26G00199).