(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/ap/mideast%20qatar%20climate%20talks--1389938573_v2.photoblog600.jpg)Osama Faisal / APActivists criticizing what they called a slow pace to climate talks protest Saturday at the convention center in Qatar. Norway's environment minister, Bard Vegar, speaks to some of them. By NBC News staff and wire reportsDOHA, Qatar -- Almost 200 nations on Saturday extended until 2020 a weak international plan for fighting global warming, averting a new setback to two decades of U.N. efforts that have failed to halt rising greenhouse gas emissions.
The eight-year extension of the Kyoto Protocol keeps it alive as the sole legally binding plan for combating global warming. But it was sapped by the withdrawal of Russia, Japan and Canada, so its signatories now account for only 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (https://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) A package of decisions, known as the Doha Climate Gateway, would also postpone until 2013 a dispute over demands from developing nations for more cash to help them cope with global warming.
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