Anti-aviation campaigners have challenged the "myth" that Britain is alone in curbing airport expansion plans, as thousands of demonstrators converged on Frankfurt airport on Sunday to protest against the effects of its new runway.

The aviation industry has consistently warned that a lack of hub airport capacity in the south-east of England means European competitors will take trade away from the UK. According to polling for the Airport Operators' Association, 73% of business leaders believe the government needs to do more to back aviation.

The aviation industry has seized on an apparent shift in policy on airport capacity in south-east England, as the aviation minister committed to accepting the recommendations of an independent commission.

Simon Burns, speaking at the Airport Operators Association (AOA) conference, said the Conservatives would back and implement the findings of the commission led by Sir Howard Davies when it reports in 2015. Previously his boss, the transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, has only pledged to "consider" its recommendations on the question of whether extra capacity, including a third runway at Heathrow or new airports, is needed.

It sounds like the green car dream – a mid-engined Lotus Evora with huge amounts of torque, a 0-60mph time of 4 seconds, and emissions lower than a Toyota Prius.

However the 414E is not a dream - I've driven the car and can confirm that it is very much a reality.

Lotus has developed the car as part of a Technology Strategy Board demonstration project on so-called 'range-extended electric vehicles', with partners Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Xtrac and Evo Electric. The aim is to showcase what the UK car industry can do in the area of ultra-low carbon vehicles – and in this case with a sports car.

Tiny Columbus, New Mexico (population, 1,678) is hot, flat and uncrowded — an ideal place to launch a new green revolution in agriculture. That, in essence, is what a well-funded startup company called Sapphire Energy wants to do: It is turning a 300-acre expanse of desert scrub into the world's largest algae farm designed to produce crude oil. Sapphire began making oil there in May, and its goal is to produce about 100 barrels a day, or 1.5 million gallons a year, of oil, once construction of the "green crude farm" is completed next year.

"We take algae, CO2, water and sunlight, and then we refine it," says Cynthia Warner, the chief executive of Sapphire, who joined the company after working for more than 20 years at oil-company giants Amoco and BP. Algae, she says, has the potential to change the world, by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and enabling almost any country to make its own oil. "This technology is so compelling — and it will make such a big difference — that, once it gets out of the gate, it will ramp up very quickly," Warner says.