COPENHAGEN — The leader of Denmark’s center-left Social Democratic party, Mette Frederiksen, will form a minority government and become the country’s next prime minister after striking a deal with several other left-leaning parties.

The agreement, reached just before midnight on Tuesday, is likely to usher in major new action on climate change and a softening of some policies on migrants, after elections this month in which those issues were top of many Danish voters’ list of priorities.

It is also a change in direction for Denmark after four years under the conservative Venstre party of former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, which had steered the country to the right, particularly after elections in 2015 when Venstre formed a minority coalition with support from other right-leaning parties, including the populist Danish People’s Party.

But a heavy defeat for the Danish People’s Party this month led Mr. Rasmussen to step down. Various left-leaning parties together won a majority in the 179-seat Parliament, a result that echoed returns elsewhere in the region, including in Iceland, Finland and Sweden, which all have center-left coalitions, albeit fragile ones.

Ms. Frederiksen, 41, who will become Denmark’s youngest-ever prime minister, vowed to work toward a 70 percent cut in her country’s carbon emissions by 2030.

“We’ll be one of the most ambitious parliaments in the world,” Ms. Frederiksen said of the environmental focus of her new government, adding that changes were likely to include levies on plastic and plans to increase forestation.

Ms. Frederiksen is also expected to change some of the contentious immigration policies of the previous, right-leaning government, though measures aimed at repatriation and limiting the number of asylum seekers and migrants will remain.

Analysts said Ms. Frederiksen’s allegiance to immigration control was fundamental to her election victory because it answered some voters’ concerns about the influx of foreigners, at the same time as she proposed increased spending on health, education, day care and other welfare areas.

“Except for immigration policy, the Social Democrats have moved left, particularly on areas of welfare and social justice,” said Jakob Nielsen, the editor in chief of Altinget, a Danish politics website.

That approach has been seen as something of a test case for other leftist parties looking to counter the surge of populism across Europe and farther afield.

The three other left-leaning parties that agreed to back Ms. Frederiksen and the Social Democrats appeared to have accepted only minor changes in immigration policy in return for increased social and welfare spending and actions to combat climate change.

The immigration measures to remain in place include a ban on face covering, which particularly affects Muslims, and an agreement from last year to force young children of some migrants to undergo instruction in “Danish values.”

Departures from previous policies will include the shelving of plans for an island-based deportation center for migrants with a criminal background who have had asylum requests rejected.

A center will also be built, in consultation with the Red Cross, to house families with children who have been rejected for asylum. Those migrants have been held in a much-criticized facility next to a military shooting field.

There were few other details about the negotiations to install Ms. Frederiksen as leader. The 18-page document announcing the formation of the government was not framed as an agreement but as a less-binding “political understanding.”

Major questions remain about how Denmark will meet the emissions target and how the promised expansions of the welfare state will be financed.

Mr. Nielsen of the Altinget website said that damage could be done to the economy if the increased spending was not financed, and he warned that heading a minority government could leave Ms. Frederiksen vulnerable to inertia.

“There’s a great risk they won’t help her to pass her policies,” he said of the parties that agreed to back the new government. “She risks becoming a prime minister without policy.”

Pernille Skipper, a lawmaker with one of the parties, the Red-Green Alliance, hinted at the challenge in an interview on the Danish channel TV2.

“We will have plenty to discuss,” Ms. Skipper said. “But at least we have a new direction.”

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