Good morning. Today, the head of the International Energy Agency tells our correspondent that he sees a resurgence in green technologies, and our internal security correspondent reports on the formation of a Nato-backed supermarket for drones.

Have a great weekend.

‘Sliding down’

Tackling climate change will “rebound” up the international agenda after years of backsliding in Europe and the rest of the world, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol tells Ian Johnston ahead of the COP31 climate conference in Antalya.

Context: Europe heads to COP31 next week to advance past agreements to triple renewables capacity and double energy efficiency improvements by 2030, as well as pursue new ambitions to increase electrification across the world. 

“In the last two to three years, climate change was sliding down the international agenda, despite the increasing number of extreme weather events . . . now I am seeing that we are going to see a rebound,” Birol said.

The comments come after US President Donald Trump, who has twice pulled his country out of the Paris Agreement, received a historic humbling from voters in midterm elections this week.

Brazil’s progressive President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also won a surprise re-election last month in a further boost for global climate action. 

Meanwhile, energy security concerns and high prices linked to the war in Iran are contributing to faster renewables build-out, growing momentum for nuclear energy and higher electric vehicle sales, Birol said. 

“I have rarely seen the energy security policy objectives and the climate objectives so closely aligned,” he added. “This COP will be very important, especially as it is taking place when the world is going through its biggest energy security threat in history.”

He said US solar power deployment had been higher in the past two years than under former US president Joe Biden, as energy-hungry AI companies splurge on data centre expansions.

Birol’s optimism comes despite backsliding on climate ambition in Europe and limited EU ambitions for Antalya. 

On Friday, member states are expected to back an Irish compromise proposal to delay new rules to tackle methane leaks and flaring linked to oil and gas imports until 2028, with further delays possible if certain conditions are not met.  

Kurt Vandenberghe, the EU’s top climate bureaucrat, told an FT event on Thursday that divisions within Europe on how fast to cut carbon emissions were leading to “awkward outcomes” for climate policy.

He criticised the watering down of the EU’s combustion engine phaseout and calls to backtrack on the expansion of carbon costs to heating and transport. 

Xi Jinping’s sweeping purge of Communist Party officials is tightening his grip on power ahead of an expected fourth term.

Drone supermarket

Nato has inaugurated an online shop for member states to buy anti-drone equipment quickly, as western countries adapt to the new realities of warfare resulting from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, writes Laura Dubois.

Context: Drones have become a “decisive factor on the battlefield”, Nato stated in July. To prepare for this, the 32-country alliance agreed to invest €40bn to build its “drone edge”.

The marketplace was launched yesterday, allowing countries to buy anti-drone solutions from five different companies: Axon and Northrop Grumman from the US, the Franco-Ukrainian start-up Alta Ares, UK company OSL and Quantum Systems from Germany.

To speed up normally lengthy procurement processes, the five companies already underwent a tender competition to offer a range of 16 solutions to member states, including lower prices as well as more expensive, best-value options.

“It’s an online platform where we have all [the] new innovative solutions,” Claudio Palestini, head of innovation and technology adoption at Nato, told journalists yesterday. “Nations will put [in] the requirements, and the system will start the process for acquisition of this system.”

Once allies purchase an option, it should be delivered within three to six months. Countries can also decide to lease the technologies, which include static and mobile defences against drones, and can be deployed for various defence purposes including border protection.

If successful, the idea is to expand the marketplace for other technologies, said Palestini.

“In the future we want to reopen the competition regularly . . . if we need to include new systems with the technological revolution that is happening, we need to come back to the market quite regularly,” he said.

1. Foreign ministers of Poland and Ukraine meet the EU’s chief diplomat in Warsaw.

2. The EU and Montenegro hold talks in Brussels aimed at closing more stages of the country’s membership application.

• Faulty parts: European Jaguar Land Rover knew of a potentially dangerous design flaw in a Range Rover component years ago.

• Greek getaway: One of the top dealmakers at private equity firm BC Partners is quitting the UK for Greece.

• Hybrid wars: Ships linked to Iran have been hovering over subsea telecoms cables in the Middle East.