Diesel being so widespread was mostly a European thing; the EU limits set following the Kyoto Agreement were very strict on CO2 (a climate change concern) and m

Diesel being so widespread was mostly a European thing; the EU limits set following the Kyoto Agreement were very strict on CO2 (a climate change concern) and much less so on particulate matter (a local air quality concern), which led to a huge movement towards diesel cars in the EU.