Wales Rally GB will be the first ever round of the World Rally Championship to be carbon neutral.

On World Environment Day and exactly six months before it starts in Cardiff, the organisers yesterday said December’s final round of this year’s international series is first to be awarded CarbonNeutral event status with its carbon footprint a measured “net zero”.
Precisely how the organisers will offset the event’s carbon footprint from spectators, teams, officials and competitors will be outlined in a few months as the programme is developed by the CarbonNeutral Company, which has been brought in to develop the initiative for WRGB.

“The company audited the event last year and concluded the combined emissions of the vehicles exceed 4,300 tonnes of CO², with only 5pc of that coming from the competition cars”, said Andrew Coe, chief executive of IMS (right).
“Motor sport should play a role in raising awareness on carbon emissions and take some responsibility for reducing them so I am pleased to announce that on World Environment Day that the 2008 WRGB will be entirely carbon neutral.”
This year’s event from 4-7 December will be open to 120 cars and consists of 350 kms of stages linked by 1,080 road miles and marks a return to some classic Mid-Wales forests not used in the last seven years and which will see this year’s running format changing with a new remote service being created close to Llandrindod Wells.

While the stages will also be used in a different way they will also be run more intensely to keep the format tight and more energy efficient as well.
For this year, a new “kid for a quid” scheme will lead the way with lower ticket prices generally than in previous years in a bid to encourage more families to watch the event and more marketing effort is being made to pull in enthusiasts and casual spectators from Scotland, the North of England and Midlands. Advance ticket sales will attract further discounts and vouchers towards merchandise.
Wales’s deputy first minister and transport minister Ieuan Wyn Jones said he had been thrilled by rallying as a young boy in North Wales and the international importance of the event put Wales infront of millions of television viewers every year which led to knock-on benefits for tourism and business. It also encourages businesses to become associated with motor sport engineering and students to take up advanced engineering courses offered in Wales, he added.

Guest speaker, ardent rally driver and spectator Richard Parry-Jones (right), former Ford chief technical officer, said advanced engineering and technologies developed in rally cars found their way into production cars so there was a direct benefit from competition.
He added, “Economic and environmental demands bring challenges which motor sport should not shrink away from but embrace, confront and strive to overcome and do better as a result for the benefit of everyone.”