Paris climate deal offers flame of hope, says UN official

Christiana Figueres says countries cleared multiple hurdles to reach accord, showing that 'if we want to do something we can'

The Paris climate agreement kindled "a huge flame of hope", establishing a new model of 21st-century diplomacy, the woman behind the deal has declared.

In her first public reflections on the climate accord signed in December, Christiana Figueres, the UN climate change official, said that after two decades of meandering negotiations, countries had at last discovered their "higher purpose" and risen to the challenge of dealing with global warming.