BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Carbon dioxide emissions from new cars in the European Union fell an average of 3 percent in 2011, as buyers chose less polluting vehicles, EU figures showed on Wednesday.
Data from the European Environmental Agency (EEA), a monitoring arm of the EU, showed a decrease in the average amount of CO2 emitted by new cars registered in 2011 to 135.7 grams per kilometer, from 140.3 in 2010. That followed a drop of nearly 4 percent in 2010 from 2009.
"This is a good sign for the capacity of Europe's car industry to innovate and thus maintain global competitiveness while making their products more efficient," EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a statement.