THE UN climate negotiations may have run over and everyone might have been exhausted but when the president finally brought down his gavel on Saturday evening, clapping and cheering erupted in the sprawling venue that has been my work-place for the past two weeks.

In my own team, there were hugs and even some tears.

Sure, we did not achieve all that we had wanted from the Paris agreement for people and nature most threatened by climate change. But I finally knew that we could all now return home with what we need to enable us to press our respective national governments on delivering on the promises they did make, as well as strengthening the national actions triggered by the deal.

As with anything requiring the approval of almost 200 countries, there was some behind-the-scenes drama toward the end, all to do with the use of the word “shall” instead of “should” in one sentence of one article within the 32-page document. Half an hour later, and probably after some telephone calls between the capitals of several nations, the word was eventually changed.

This was then followed by further delays caused by errors resulting from translating the text into multiple languages, and then back again.

However, eventually French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who was chairing the talks, moved to adopt the agreement. Seeing no objections from any countries, the deal was then passed.

As a result, we now have an agreement that includes a target that commits governments to keeping global temperature rises “well below” 2C and further commits them to strive to curb increases to 1.5C.

It also includes a five-year review system to allow for increased ambition on cutting carbon emissions, differentiation between nations as to their responsibilities for action, and finance for poor countries to help them deal with rising temperatures.

In addition to the agreement itself, it should be remembered that the Paris moment also created several firsts, including the securing of pledges from more than 180 nations to limit their climate-change emissions, plus the announcement of transformative plans to massively scale up renewables across India, African nations, and many other countries.

To me it is clear from the agreement that the transition to a fully renewable future is unstoppable, with the fossil fuel industry living on borrowed time. If governments are to stay true to keeping global temperature rises well below 2C, then greater amounts of fossil fuels will now need to remain in the ground and unburned.

And now that the talks are over, it’s time for the real action to step up a gear.

Hundreds of thousands mobilised across the world on the opening weekend of the talks, including more than 5,000 in Edinburgh, to show they want our leaders at home and internationally to take meaningful action on climate change. The ambition shown by people, communities and businesses working towards positive solutions is already massive, and now governments must match that and harness the environmental, social and economic benefits of tackling climate change.

During the course of the talks, it was great to see the First Minister in Paris sharing Scotland’s ambitious climate story internationally. We can rightly be proud of Scotland’s climate legislation on the world stage but its true value lies in turning our ambitions into actions to create a thriving, low-carbon, socially just Scotland.

This week’s draft budget will be an acid test of the Scottish Government’s commitment to climate action. A clear, long-term funding plan for boosting the energy efficiency of our homes and tackling fuel poverty would send a strong signal about Scotland’s intent to meet future targets.

Indeed, all political parties should be responding to the global challenge that has been laid down in Paris by setting out manifesto pledges that will ensure we meet our climate act targets and fully grasp the benefits of Scotland’s climate change ambition.

Lang is the director of WWF Scotland and was part of the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland delegation to the UNFCCC.