"SYDNEY — China is rapidly assuming a global leadership role on climate change alongside the United States, a new study said Monday, but it warned greenhouse gas emissions worldwide continue to rise strongly."

"GENEVA -- At the start of a major conference to regulate chemical and hazardous waste safety, top officials voiced optimism Saturday that delegates will approve new international controls on several industrial compounds and agree to clamp down on some cross-border pollution."

"Demand for metals is likely to increase tenfold as developing economies surge ahead, putting severe stress on the natural environment, a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned."

"U.S. officials and experts have expressed strong reservations about the plan to operate a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori to recover fissionable plutonium while most of the nation's reactors remain shuttered, a Japan Atomic Energy Commission member said."

"COPEMISH, Mich. — A team led by a nurseryman from northern Michigan and his sons has raced against time for two decades, snipping branches from some of the world's biggest and most durable trees with plans to produce clones that could restore ancient forests and help fight climate change."

"Few Torontonians know there are oil pipelines beneath the city and that Enbridge has applied to make significant changes to one of them."

Beekeepers in the remote hills of southern Greece are not seeing colony collapse disorder in their hives. The reason may be that the bees are not exposed to pesticides.

"Canada's federal pipeline regulator has ordered Enbridge to conduct a full engineering assessment of a troubled northern pipeline that has sprung several leaks in the last two months."

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. refuses to pay 10.55 billion yen ($106 million) for decontamination work around its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, saying it is under no legal obligation to do so."

"WASHINGTON, DC -- Support for global action to curb climate change is growing stronger within the G8 group of the world’s largest industrial democracies, which includes the United States and Japan."