Thick smog has blanketed many Chinese cities since the start of the year and carbon emissions are among the main contributors to the pollution. That's why China's State Council has issued a timetable for oil companies to deliver cleaner fuel nationwide, starting this year.

Cleaner vehicles gain momentum in France.

Fully electric cars can be found all around Paris reducing noise, and fuel pollution in the French capital.

The Autolib rent-a-cars may be small, but you can go a long way on a full battery.

Launched just over a year ago the car-sharing scheme now has 63,000 subscribers.

Leopold Jimmy, AutoLib, said, "I think the Parisians, and the French people, understand the AutoLib system well. They know that they can drive in Paris without polluting and the advantage is that it is very very economical."

But clean fuel is being held back by a number of barriers. The cost of vehicles is high, consumer's are cautious and while it's maybe easy enough to find a place to recharge in Paris for your AutoLib in Paris. Elsewhere in France it's not so easy to find recharging and refuelling stations for clean fuel vehicles which is why the European Commission is embarking on an ambitious plan to significantly increase the number of alternative fuel stations across the continent.

By 2020, the Eurepean Commission wants to see.

The hope is that with more charging stations. More people will buy electric, or hybrid, vehicles.

French carmakers hope so to.

Thomas Orsini, electric vehicle development, Renault, said, "People are reluctant to change, they are afraid and actually seeing a full ecosystem being developed with the cooperation of public and private actors and the incentives with the full support of the authorities both at national level and international level is really part of the picture to make people accept the change."

So as China tries to see past the smog, it could think about investing in electric vehicles and plugging into a much cleaner type of fuel.

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