New research from a major US institute now suggests that the soot particles from diesel have an important role in the warming of the planet, and cutting them out will have a more immediate effect than many more long-term solutions.
Diesel has become a favoured fuel especially in Europe, and more recently in Ireland, because engines using it are more economical and emit less CO2 than equivalent petrol engines.
Cutting CO2, a key global warming gas, from cars and power stations has been a main focus of environmentalists and the governments they lobby.
But researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington state in the US, now identify the black carbon particles from diesel engines as a key element in global warming, because they absorb sunlight and heat up, so warming the atmosphere.
CO2 buildup is still the main culprit, but reducing the particulates from diesels would have a fairly immediate effect on global warming, because they wash out of the atmosphere quickly.
The Pacific Northwest scientists say reducing soot would 'buy some time' in the fight against rising planet temperatures, while new technologies are developed to reduce CO2.
