Does diesel have a future in a cleaner and more eco aware future ?

Sure, why not.

The key though is for it to be as clean as possible. But can it be clean enough? This means that it must easily achieve a Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions rating or better otherwise the lower fuel consumption alone will not be much better over the exiting (and very dirty) solutions we have available. Heck, even a standard fuel efficient gasoline powered vehicle is rated as a Tier 2 Bin 5 and we all know that that is not clean enough.

Our future success in this area will depend on a viable and relatively clean set of technologies and the Diesel solution will only be part of that future if, and only if, it cleans up its act. Unfortunately, this also means that much of the touted advantages that diesels are purported to have will also be eroded by higher costs and engineering complexity needed to clean up its emissions. And given the challenges ahead of diesel platforms like cost of fuel, technical competence on the part of dealers and compliant emission control systems, the scrutiny placed on this technology is only bound to increase with time. Also complicating things a bit, is that hybrids keep getting cheaper and progressively more efficient with each new generation and that too will only help dampen the diesel acceptance.

Only time will tell, but I sure hope Diesel vehicle manufacturers invest enough and in very short order to assure Diesel tech of a good future. We desperately need a good array of viable future solutions and academically speaking, there's no reason why Diesel cannot be a part of it... if it could just clean up a fair bit.