After two weeks of intense talks in Paris, negotiators have secured a deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C. The agreement, partly legally binding and partly voluntary, is the first to commit all countries to cut carbon emissions. President of the UN climate conference of parties (COP) and French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, convened the final plenary session in the early evening on Saturday. After smoothing out the final technicalities, Fabius said: “Looking out to the room I see that the reaction is positive, I see no objections. The Paris agreement is adopted.” As he struck the gavel to signal the adoption of the deal, delegates rose to their feet cheering and applauding. The pact is the culmination of more than 20 years of fraught UN climate talks, says the Observer, and it sees all 195 countries agree “to reduce emissions, promise to raise $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries adapt their economies, and accept a new goal of zero net emissions by later this century”. President François Hollande, the summit host, described the deal as a “major leap for mankind”, reports the Telegraph, while David Cameron said it marked “a huge step forward in helping to secure the future of our planet.” Similarly, US President Barack Obama said the pact is “the best chance we have to save the one planet we have,” says BBC News, while in a statement, former US vice president Al Gore along with prominent business leaders said the governments may have signalled the end of the fossil fuel era, says the Observer. There’s more reaction from scientists and NGO leaders in the Guardian, which also covers comments from UK energy and climate change secretary, Amber Rudd, on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show. Rudd said she through the deal had the right balance: “While it is a compromise, it is nevertheless an historic moment.” The commitments within the deal will “lead to a critical mass of countries reaching their CO2 emission peaks by 2030”, reports the Guardian. And the new accord will be open for signature from April next year and will enter force once at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55% of global emissions have approved or ratified it, notes the Financial Times. Finally, the Observer runs through the twists and turns of the delicate negotiations over the course of the COP, and you can read back over the tense final day in the BBC News live blog.

The Paris agreement has, understandably, made headlines all around the world. It’s impossible to capture all the coverage, but here’s a flavour. In China, the news agency Xinhua quotes Xie Zhenhua, China’s key negotiator: “Although the agreement is not perfect, it does not stop us from moving a historical step forward.” The Times of India quotes prime minister Narendra Modi saying the deal is a victory of “climate justice” and that there were no winners or losers. He adds, though, that it could have been “more ambitious”. In Germany, Deutsche Welle carries a comment piece by Jens Thurau in which he says, “What a result!” He picks out the French foreign minister for particular praise: “In years to come, no one name will be more synonymous with this two week conference than that of Laurent Fabius…Perhaps, in a world of increasing crises, a new hope can come forth from environmental protection.” The Jerusalem Post reports prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel “will contribute its part”. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that climate sceptics in Australia’s ruling party are already signalling their disquiet about the global deal. The New York Times’s extensive coverage includes an article featuring contributions from its writers, entitled “What does a climate deal mean for the world?” In France, Le Figaro has produced a “dossier special” on COP21. In Brazil’s Globo, Sergio Abranches heralds Paris as the “capital of global diplomacy”. South Africa’s Mail and Guardian carries analysis by Prof Simon Lewis, one of Carbon Brief’s contributing editors, called, “Five things you need to know about the Cop21 climate deal”.

Ed Miliband has vowed to use the landmark international agreement on climate change to push the British government into being the first in the world to put a zero carbon emissions target into law. The former Labour leader, who will lead a cross-party campaign on the issue in the new year, said the agreements in Paris would strengthen the hand of those who want more action from David Cameron’s government and “will weaken those who say Britain should hang back” on investing in green energy. The Financial Times also covers the story, under the headline “Ed Miliband to reinvent himself as climate evangelist.”

MPs and peers have raised concerns that the sale of the Green Investment Bank will strip it of its legal requirement to back only green projects and promote a low-carbon economy. In November, ministers and officials at the bank admitted to MPs that, once privatised, the bank would “technically” be free to invest in projects such as fracking. The Guardian now reports that key figures in government have admitted that the sell-off has become hugely problematic.

Britain may need to toughen up its emissions targets after the first universal deal on global warming, according to the government’s advisers. The Committee on Climate Change said that it would examine the impact of the agreement, including the tougher commitment to restrict warming to “well below” 2C and to “pursue efforts” to keep it to 1.5C. Matthew Bell, the committee’s chief executive, said that it would consider whether the budgets, which set the total amount Britain can emit in a five-year period and are current based on a limit of 2C, should be changed.

Crude fell to its lowest price in seven years on Friday after forecasters said oil inventories would continue to swell next year with supply outstripping demand. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, fell $2.37 to $37.36 a barrel following the International Energy Agency’s announcement that Iran’s return to oil markets next year, when sanctions are lifted, would add to a supply glut. The El Niño weather phenomenon bringing milder winter weather to the northern US has also reduced demand for oil for heating, says the Guardian.

The environment secretary, Liz Truss, has set up a group to consider whether flood defences in Cumbria need to be strengthened after the flooding in the wake of Storm Desmond. The new “Cumbrian Floods Partnership group” will look at options for slowing the flow of key rivers and involve local residents in flood-defence planning. The group will be chaired by the floods minister, Rory Stewart, community flood defence groups, the Environment Agency and local authorities.

“The best outcome of the Paris agreement would be a global race to invest in and profit from cleaner energy,” says a Times editorial, and the best outcome for Britain “would be for it to be one of the winners.” What is needed to achieve the agreement set out in Paris “is a new burst of investment, research and development to make eco-friendlier energy sources profitable too.” But rather than being “wasted on wind farms,” it should be channelled towards “solar and nuclear technology, including the as-yet elusive possibility of generating power using nuclear fusion,” it says.

“The Paris COP 21 talks surpassed expectations in rising to it, demonstrating just how much can be achieved by determined diplomacy,” says the Guardian. But anxiety remains around whether nations will move from making promises towards real action. Paris “has given the world a new hope,” but if the answer to climate change is going to have to be found in continuous haggling between 200 nations, then success is also going to depend on winning the argument against narrow nationalism in every corner of the world.

Rather than being “unilateral decarbonisers,” Britain should invoke two forces in deciding its climate policy, says the Sunday Times: self-interest and technology. “Imposing on consumers and businesses higher energy costs, often as a result of officials gold-plating our international climate obligations, has been harmful and left energy policy in crisis.” Instead, low-carbon technology should provide the means of limiting our contribution to climate change, it says: “We should never underestimate the scope for human ingenuity, given the right incentives, to solve problems.”

Melting glaciers triggered by increased global temperatures are shifting the Earth’s rotation and axis, a new study says. The research attempts to solve what’s known as “Munk’s enigma” – the lack of observations to prove the theoretical changes caused by the influx of meltwater into the ocean. Using simulations, the researchers show that earlier attempts to take into account the influence of the last ice age on Earth’s rotation had been incorrectly estimated. The new findings are consistent with both theoretical predictions and astronomical observations, the researchers say.