LATEST figures produced by a vehicle leasing and fleet management company show that carbon dioxide emissions produced by new cars on its own fleet are continuing to fall.

Godfrey Davis Contract Hire (GDCH) has noted a drop of nearly 10g/km of CO2 per car for new vehicles registered on to its fleet in September, compared to the same month a year ago.

Its latest findings show that the average CO2 for a car registered by the company in September fell to 169.8g/km, compared to 179.4g/km in September 2001, representing a reduction of 5.4%.

The average CO2 rating for the company's entire fleet of 30,000 vehicles fell to 181.9g/km per vehicle, down 4.2% from 189.9g/km per vehicle for September 2001. The company also revealed that diesels accounted for 58.1% of its September registrations, up from 44.7% a year ago, and diesels now account for 38.2% of its total fleet, compared to 27% in September 2001.