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Air pollution in London is now so severe that it has surpassed levels normally found in Beijing, a city famed for its incessant smog. After authorities issued a 'very high' air pollution alert for the first time in the capital's history on Monday, the toxic air currently blanketing the city has shown little sign of abating. London mayor Sadiq Khan has described the situation as a "health crisis," the Telegraph reports, and warnings to take caution have been displayed at various tube stations, bus stops, and roadsides across the city.

After London air pollution levels surpassed allowed limits for 2017 just five days into the new year, new initiatives to improve air quality and draw attention to the city's growing pollution problem have been popping up on the regular. In January, Ford announced that it was teaming up with local government to launch the Ford Transit Custom Plug-In Hybrid Van Pilot Program and the city has begun to roll out ultra-low emissions zones and fleets of hybrid and zero-emission buses to help drive London towards a zero-emission future.

Transport for London has today (Wednesday 27 August) announced that it is to trial innovative technology that will enable specially designed buses to wirelessly charge their batteries while they wait at bus stands.

London, Amsterdam and Copenhagen have announced they will work together to design a project that will improve the capture of plastics. City officials from the three capitals will share information and experiences on the development and delivery of circular economy action plans. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation recently estimated plastic packaging waste at $80-120 billion annually. 

London, Jakarta, Shanghai and Houston and other global cities that are already sinking will become increasingly vulnerable to storms and flooding as a result of global warming, campaigners have warned ahead of a landmark new report on climate science.

Cheetah, the fastest land animal on earth, is heading toward extinction, according to researchers at the Zoological Society of London.

San Francisco just took a major step to save the environment. The city's Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance to ban the sale of polystyrene - more commonly known by its brand-name "styrofoam" - on Tuesday. It's the broadest ban on the product in the country, according to Mother Jones. "The science is clear," London Breed, Board of Supervisors president, said in a statement in April. "This stuff is an environmental and public health pollutant, and we have to reduce its use." Starting January 1, 2017, vendors will no longer be able to sell polystyrene products, from food packaging and coffee cups to packing peanuts and pool toys, according to Science Alert. And starting July 1, styrofoam fish and meat trays in supermarkets will also be banned.

H&M, one of the most eco-conscious fashion stores out there, has been battling against just that since 2013, and is hoping to enlist the help if its customers with a powerful new video. Entitled Bring it on, a short film shows what happens to the garments you recycle, from being turned into new fabrics for new clothes to being used as cleaning clothes. In doing this, it hopes to collect 25,000 tonnes of unwanted clothes per year by 2020. 

H&M's "Bring It On" campaign encourages customers to recycle unwanted clothing at local stores, with Londoners getting a gift voucher worth about $6.25 in exchange. The company aims to collect more than 27,500 tons of used clothing and donate the funds from the garments toward textile recycling and human rights organizations.

Geoengineering technologies such as injecting sulfur into the atmosphere to offset carbon dioxide will begin to seem less like science fiction and more like a reasonable solution, argues David Keith of Harvard Kennedy School. Not everyone's convinced that's a good idea, though. "Solar climate engineering is a flawed idea seeking an illusory solution to the wrong problem," counters Mike Hulme of King's College London.

London/Rotterdam, 9 April 2014. Unilever announced today that all its factories across Europe have joined those in North America in achieving zero non-hazardous waste to landfill. With similar achievements in countries from Argentina to Indonesia, it means more than three-quarters of the company's global factory network no longer sends such waste to landfill, up from 20% just three years ago.

British Airways and biofuel producer Solena Fuels selected a site east of London for building the world's first plant for converting landfill waste to aviation biofuel. British Airways will purchase 50,000 metric tons of jet fuel per year from the facility when it comes online in 2017.

Just 12% of the global population lives in cities with acceptable air quality, and half of all urbanites are subjected to air pollution levels more than 2.5 times the recommended threshold, according to a new study from the World Health Organization. Mexico City, Karachi and Delhi are among the worst offenders, and researchers also found poor air quality in the U.S. and in European metropolises such as Paris and London

Scotland is banning GMO crops in a bid to protect its "clean and green brand," angering farmers and scientists who say the ban panders to unwarranted consumer concerns and has no basis in science. "Cultivation of GM crops would harm our environment and our reputation," counters Scottish Green lawmaker Alison Johnstone. The Independent (London) (tiered subscription model) (8/9) 

Transportation company Uber announced its Clean Air Plan, which aims to transition its UK-based "uberX" drivers to 100% hybrid or fully electric vehicles by the end of 2022. As part of the plan, Uber has contributed £2 million toward a dedicated fund that allows its UK-based drivers to "access up to £5,000 towards the cost of upgrading their car to a hybrid or fully electric vehicle." The company will also add a fee to every ride taken through the app in London to grow the fund and extend access to more drivers, with plans to add a similar fee in other UK cities over the next year.

Chinese authorities have nabbed all three identified members of a major ivory trafficking syndicate first exposed by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in 2017.

Siemens will invest $264 million to build production facilities for its 6MW offshore wind turbines in the UK. The facilities are expected to create over 1,000 jobs and begin producing rotor blades by 2016.

Deliver Change, a UK-based non-profit focused on sustainable technology projects, launched a campaign this week called "Let's make air pollution visible," which aims to bring together businesses, policy makers and local groups to solve the problem of air pollution in the UK. Deliver Change is also piloting its air-quality monitoring network, AirSensa, to collect data on air pollution in UK cities.