Brussels.- Greenpeace hostesses splattered luxury vehicles with oil today to mark six months to the day since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and launch its report Steering Clear of Oil Disasters.

Mocking industry car shows, activists parked three heavy-weight vehicles in front of the Brussels office of European carmaker association ACEA, before smearing them with an oily reminder of one of Europe’s major drivers of oil spills – transport.

Greenpeace EU transport policy advisor Franziska Achterberg said: “Gas guzzlers are fuelling a race for dirtier and dangerous oil from deep-sea reserves, tar sands, the Arctic and other unconventional sources. Carmakers are deliberately sticking to the slow lane when it comes to greening their fleets and need to take their share of the blame for disasters like Deepwater Horizon. The only guarantee against oil disasters is to eliminate the need for high-risk extraction in the first place.”

The EU is currently agreeing legislation on fuel efficiency for vans. The European Commission will publish a progress report on existing fuel efficiency legislation in November. Greenpeace EU’s independent report, Steering Clear of Oil Disasters, demonstrates that if the EU set a series of progressive CO2 emission standards for cars and vans up to 2030, oil consumption in Europe would fall by eight percent by 2030, compared to business as usual. This step would eliminate completely the need for imports of oil from dangerous and dirty sources, cut Europe’s CO2 emissions by 186 million tons and deliver savings of $42 billion per year on crude oil imports.

The transport sector is not pulling its weight in the climate effort. The vehicle lobby argues that such targets are hard to reach, but recent technological advances have shown that fuel consumption in vans can easily be reduced. Some top-selling models have achieved over 10% cuts in emissions since 2007. Proposals tabled by the Commission would require carmakers to cut emissions by 14% between 2007 and 2016.

Achterberg added: “Car lobby ACEA and its members are tirelessly trying to water-down fuel efficiency targets. This is no good for the environment or for consumers. Carmakers can’t stop spills happening directly. But they should be striding towards efficient, money-saving products that steer us clear of oil disasters.”

Greenpeace calls on Parliament to recognize the link between vehicle efficiency and dirty oil extraction and strengthen the proposed CO2 emission standard for vans in its plenary vote, likely to take place on 23 November.