At ACCIONA, we have a firm conviction: It is time to accelerate the transition to a fairer, lower-carbon planet. For the third year in a row, we joined the Extreme E 100% electric, off-road, mixed-gender competition to share this conviction with the world.
This ground-breaking competition is taking the championship to five of the world's most visible climate change hotspots, with the aim of making a positive impact in each of them.
As signatories to the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework, we are committed to:
Its main purpose is both environmental and social: to raise awareness on climate change and gender equality, promoting community action in the localities in which the races are held.
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The competition promotes gender equality.
The rules require teams to be made up of 50% men and 50% women, with the same number of kilometres driven by each team member.
The ACCIONA Sainz XE Team features two stars of the motorsport world committed to sustainable transformation, gender equality and environmental conservation.
A Spanish Trial, Enduro and Rally driver, 14-time Trial World Champion and six-time Enduro World Champion. She has also completed the Dakar Rally 13 times, winning the women's motorcycle category each time. In 2015, she came in ninth overall, the best female result in history.
With two world titles, four second places and five third places in the 14 World Championships he has participated in and a total of 27 victories, he was voted by fans around the world as the best rally driver in history, having won each and every one of the most legendary and prestigious rallies in the Championship (Finland, Monte Carlo, Safari, Tour de Corse, Acropolis, RAC England, Rally Spain, etc.). In 2010, he became the first Spaniard to win the Dakar Rally in the car category, a title that he reclaimed in 2018 and 2020 with three different manufacturers on two different continents. This impeccable track record was one of the reasons he was awarded the 2020 Princess of Asturias Award for Sports.
Mattias Ekström joins the team after a prolific racing career in the Rallycross World Championship, which he conquered in 2016, and the DTM, which he won twice in 2004 and 2007. He knows Extreme E inside out because he raced during the maiden season in 2021. He is one of Carlos’ teammates at Audi at the Dakar Rally.
"Carlos is one of my childhood idols and since we are teammates in Audi’s Dakar project, we’ve become friends, so it feels special and even emotional to join his team at Extreme E. With me stepping in for Carlos, it will give him more time to recover from the accident he suffered at the Dakar Rally. I also know Laia since my very first Extreme E race and I’ve seen her progress a lot and she has shown her speed on track."
The climate crisis hits some areas of the planet harder. The competition helps to increase awareness about five ecosystems affected by climate change, about the need to preserve their ecosystems and generate a positive impact through environmental recovery programmes.
Neom, Saudi Arabia
DESERT X PRIX
Saudi Arabia is home to the world's largest continuous sand desert, and is also one of the most water-stressed countries on whose shores are the coral reefs of the Red Sea, an ecosystem threatened by global warming and plastic pollution.
We want to raise awareness, together with Extreme E, of the consequences of desertification and the deterioration of marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, and to collaborate with local and international experts on projects to preserve ecosystems affected by the impact of climate change.
Two natural environments define Saudi Arabia in particular: the desert and the sea. Home to the world's largest continuous sand desert, a region with one of the highest levels of water stress and a backdrop of coastlines that shelter the coral reefs of the Red Sea, threatened by climate change and plastic pollution.
The inaugural leg of Extreme E season 3 aims to raise awareness of the consequences of desertification and the loss of healthy marine ecosystems, highlighting the "importance of incorporating nature into society".
For this reason, the first location of the season is NEOM, full of ecosystem diversity and a geographical situation conditioned by the Red Sea that allows for mild temperatures. However, the climate crisis puts the region's progress at risk while accelerating the urgency of finding regenerative and innovative solutions to help mitigate and adapt to climate change.
These include the development of renewable energy solutions and, in particular, green hydrogen, an energy vector that the Extreme E organisation underlines as essential to drive the region's decarbonisation. Of course, complemented by projects to conserve Saudi Arabia's rich biodiversity.
- CHALLENGE: Climate change threatens the health of the desert and marine ecosystems that populate Saudi Arabia, as well as all sectors of social and economic progress in the region. To provide solutions to the climate crisis, Extreme E says, "the region is committing resources to reforestation and desert regeneration solutions."
- SOLUTIONS: The third season of Extreme E will again serve as a platform for the continuation of the Legacy programme, which in NEOM aims to restore nature - for example, by protecting lizards and promoting species breeding programmes - as well as planting trees.
In this line, as Extreme E states on its website, the organisation "has collaborated with the Ba'a Foundation, an organisation dedicated to the conservation of endangered species, natural habitats and historical sites, to support the conservation of turtles on the Red Sea coast".
Scotland - United Kingdom
TBC X PRIX
Rising sea levels as a result of global warming threaten the ecosystems that sustain the world's coastlines, as well as the prosperity of their inhabitants.
There is no place in the world that can escape the effects of climate change. The UK cannot, and neither can its coasts. This is one of the reasons why Extreme E wants to raise awareness of one of the consequences of the climate crisis: rising sea levels. This phenomenon is causing coastal land erosion, endangering homes, surrounding crops and habitats, as well as tourist areas. It affects not only the environmental but also the social and economic fabric of communities.
Sardinia - Italy
ISLAND X PRIX
Islands such as Sardinia in Italy are suffering the consequences of rising temperatures and heat waves on their ecosystems. The loss of Posidonia oceanica seagrass beds and the rate of forest fires are two clear examples.
According to Extreme E, in 2021, fires "blazed through 20,000 hectares of land, displaced over 1,000 people and killed around 30 million bees".
The spread of fires is closely linked to phenomena such as drought and desertification. Fires also contribute to climate change by releasing carbon dioxide, one of the gases responsible for global warming, into the atmosphere. Did you know that forests absorb 7.6 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide globally?
TBC
TBC X PRIX
Atacama - Chile
COPPER X PRIX
The impact of global warming means that desert ecosystems like the one found in Chile's Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, are facing serious threats to the survival of their biodiversity. Endemic species existing in this unique ecosystem, which is the only one of its kind, are endangered and environmental protection measures are urgently needed.
It is vitally important that we continue to raise awareness about respecting our environment – not just to mitigate the impact that humans have on the environment but to remedy the effects of this impact and, ultimately, generate a positive impact that allows for a continued, sustainable balance in the ecosystem.
In conjunction with the Extreme E competition, legacy programmes and initiatives are being implemented at each race location to provide social and environmental support to the local communities in order to make a positive impact.
Competition objectives:
Transport is responsible for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. We are advocating the electrification of transport to help combat climate change, in line with the Odyssey 21: a 100% electric all-terrain vehicle.
All nine teams use the Odyssey 21, the 100% electric off-road vehicle with batteries powered by green hydrogen systems. This unique design is able to withstand harsh terrain and temperature conditions.
The exterior shell of the Odyssey 21 is made from natural flax fibre, a sustainable material that, according to the Extreme E competition, enables a 75% reduction in the carbon footprint of the entire manufacturing process.
With a 400-kW engine (the equivalent of 557 bhp), the off-road Odyssey 21 SUV is revolutionising the racing car scene. It can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds and can tackle slopes of up to 130%.
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