South Sudan is teetering on the brink of a civil war, but peace talks may be making progress in Ethiopia today, and China may be the one to thank.

China’s efforts to reduce its horrific pollution are creating a new problem: fraud. To clear its smoggy skies, China put in place incentives for power plants to reduce air pollution, but many plants cheated that system by claiming to have cut down on their emissions without actually doing anything. Now the Chinese government is having to crack down on these swindling power producers.

On Sunday, 60 Minutes ran a segment highlighting recent struggles in the field of renewable technologies. The piece was, as one might glean upon reading its title, highly critical of the industry’s failures, and of our government’s role in funding some of these high-profile flops. If we’ve learned anything from flops like Fisker and Solyndra, it’s this: rather than directly funding companies looking to peddle cleantech, we should be funneling taxpayer money towards the research and development of the technologies that undergird the industry.

Europe is becoming a coal sink, and, ironically, much of the blame for its increasing reliance on the dirty energy source can be attributed to its green policies. Now, in a move emblematic of the complex interconnectivity of the global energy market, Europe’s green policies and the American shale boom are spurring a new growth of Europe’s dirtiest variety of coal.

A New York Times feature on a fierce GMO debate in Hawaii casts the idiocy and hypocrisy of the modern green movement on the issue in stark relief. For anyone curious themselves about the GMO debate, this is a piece worth reading in full. But here’s the quick and dirty summary: our best scientific understanding of genetically modified crops suggests that they’re just as safe as their non-modified counterparts.

Spain recently walked back on solar energy subsidies, and in so doing hurt its credibility and left many green energy producers out in the lurch. The country’s energy policies are a mess right now, but the decision to renegotiate rates paid for renewable energy production, though unpopular, was necessary. The takeaway for the rest of the world: propping up technologies incapable of competing on their own merit doesn’t work.

Working remotely saves time, money, and according to Harvard professor and president of the American Economic Association Claudia Goldin, it could be the key to closing the gender wage gap.

China picked a loser in solar energy, and to soak up its glut of cheap (and often shoddily-made) panels, it’s building out white elephant projects like a new solar power plant in a remote northwestern desert.

The UK is the clear world leader in the very young field of offshore wind energy, but the Economist isn’t impressed. The green energy source’s startlingly high costs make Britain’s accomplishment dubious at best.

The world’s largest and most expensive single oil project has been a disaster so far. Plagued by delays and cost overruns, Kazakhstan’s Kashagan oil field has been a headache for its consortium of investors, and a lack of clear leadership is compounding these technical problems. If and when the oil starts flowing, a whole slew of questions—predicated on where that oil is piped—arises.