Climate activists staged a protest in Aberystwyth against the Rali Ceredigion event.

The group claimed the event’s carbon offsetting measures, as well as their biofuel car category, did not tangibly offset the impact of the rally taking place.

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: “The ‘green’ version of the ‘new-style rali’ consists of running one car on biofuel and paying an offsetting company for a calculation of damage caused by emissions.

“What is included in that calculation? All support vehicles, road closure signage, fencing, visits to residents on the route, clearing and supporting road edges, emails, phone calls by organisers, attendance of local people at consultation meetings, hire of premises, attendance of employees of the organisation? Not to mention the continuous presence of a helicopter to record the rally from the air.

“We understand that rally drivers want to race their cars on country roads. They are living their dream. But our local authority should have a wider vision than this.

“Having had the understanding and forward thinking to declare a climate emergency in 2019, how can they possibly promote, encourage and facilitate an event like this that is so contrary to reducing climate emissions in Ceredigion? They have the responsibility to see the bigger picture which the rally driver cannot see and does not want to see.”

A spokesperson for Rali Ceredigion said: “Sustainability is critical to the long-term future of motorsport events and we work hard to find new ways to help decarbonise our event.

“Organising vehicles are either electric or running on low emissions fuels, such as HVO, where possible and we’re promoting hydrogen and sustainable race fuels as longer-term solutions to help significantly reduce the environmental impact of our sport.

“Until then, and in the short-term, we’re undertaking an impressive and verifiable carbon offsetting programme, one of the largest in global rallying, to mitigate those emissions as we work towards a carbon neutral event. We expect to offset 25 per cent more than the carbon footprint created by the event this year.

“It’s easy to target motorsport but other sporting events, and those attending them every week, create much higher emissions. We’re being proactive and working extremely hard on sustainability.”