The FIA hosted its second Sustainable Innovation Series event – Driving Sustainable Development through Rallying – in partnership with the World Rally Championship in Porto today.

Taking place ahead of the WRC Vodafone Rallye de Portugal, the event welcomed speakers from across the worlds of motor sport, culture, business, and sustainability, for a series of engaging panels and keynotes.

The packed agenda also saw WRC share a raft of new announcements, including the launch of the Championships’ Sustainability Roadbook, a new programme to encourage female participation in rally, and the launch of a new WRC partnership with the European Space Agency.

FIA Director of Sustainability and Diversity and Inclusion Sara Mariani opened the event. She told audiences: “We hope that events like this one will be a catalyst for continued progress and collaboration both within and outside the world of motor sport.”

During the first panel, WRC’s Santiago Pena Gomez and the European Space Agency’s Guillaume Tuan Prigent discussed ‘Future Proofing Rallying’ – and the journey towards a more sustainable and resilient Championship. The session saw the launch of the all-new WRC Sustainability Roadbook – which sets out a concrete roadmap to take WRC to net-zero - and the announcement of an all-new partnership between WRC and the ESA. This partnership will focus on data sharing to measure environmental impact.

Audiences heard from P1 Fuels’ Martin Popilka and Apetro’s Guido Albuquerque during the day’s second panel ‘Approaching Climate Targets through Sustainable Fuels’. Popilka – whose company produces sustainable fuels for the WRC – explained the research and development process behind the Championships’ biofuels. He and Albuquerque then went on to discuss track-to-road innovation, and the way that these innovations might be shared with consumers.

The third panel gathered IUCN's Emanuel Boscardin, the UNESCO World Heritage Center's Tales Carvalho Resende and the FIA's Barbara Silva for a discussion about sport’s role in biodiversity stewardship. Panel members highlighted the role that rally has to play in protecting our cultural and environmental heritage.

Motor sport legends Michele Mouton, Burcu Cetinkaya and Pernilla Solberg joined the WRC’s Peter Thul to launch a new programme for women in rally during the day’s final panel. The initiative will aim to scout, evaluate and fund emerging female talent for top-flight rally.

Speaking after the event, Jacob Bangsgaard, Secretary General for Automobile Mobility and Tourism, said: “We are delighted to have hosted another successful Sustainable Innovation Series event. This series is all about making impact and inspiring change across the motor sport and mobility ecosystem. Today’s announcements are testament to the impact of this series, and we look forward to seeing these partnerships and programmes coming into force.”

The next Sustainable Innovation Series events will take place in Europe this summer.