CO2? The energy content of the fuel is roughly the same and the are both made of hydrocarbon chains with similar proportions of carbon and hydrogen. The principal difference being that petrol is shorter chains C8.. C11 and diesel is C13..C18. So how does using diesel reduce the emission of CO2? I understand that diesels are generally a little more efficient than petrol engines but that doesn't seem to be enough to claim any serious reduction on CO2 emissions.
I don't disagree, but there was a Europe wide effort in the late 90s to encourage diesels following Kyoto. The resulting tax changes on both vehicles and fuel led to a huge growth in diesels. They went from a minority 10% of vehicles to over half.
