An opening presentation from Mitchell Toomey, Director of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign, began the first panel discussion of the week and highlighted the crucial role of Clubs in developing the political will to turn policy into practice.

“The hard work of the FIA has brought the issue of road safety into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework,” he said.

From the issue of putting mobility and road safety onto the global policy agenda, the discussion turned to the significant challenges faced in transforming these goals into tangible results.

Lord George Robertson of the FIA Foundation was passionate in his placement of FIA Clubs as a driving force behind making governments take action.

He said: “The SDGs are now firmly on the agenda – the next stage is to put them into practice and that is where FIA Clubs have a huge, decisive role to play, and I look forward to working with you, under the leadership of Jean Todt, to make that happen.”

As the discussion developed, Eva Molnar (Director of the Transport Division of the UNECE) urged Clubs to pressure their respective governments to include road safety in the voluntary reporting of SDGs, which commences later this year. She also touched on the fact that modern technology is forcing us to rethink older policies and the way we make policies for the future, for instance in the area of autonomous cars.

Finally, Romain Lacombe, founder of environmental monitoring organisation Plume Labs, broadened the focus to the serious secondary impact of transportation – air pollution – and how mobility policy and the development of car technologies can create changes in trends that will positively impact global public health.