Nearly 200 nations extended until 2020 a weakened United Nations plan for stopping global warming with a modest set of measures that would do little to stop rising world greenhouse gas emissions.
Many countries and environmentalists said the deal at the end of marathon two-week UN talks in OPEC-member Qatar would fail to slow rising temperatures or avert more floods, droughts, heat waves and rising sea levels.
Environment ministers extended until 2020 the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges about 35 industrialised nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions until the end of 2012. That keeps the pact alive as the sole legally binding climate plan.
Delegates from almost 200 nations have agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol at UN climate talks in Doha, Qatar.
The first commitment period under the protocol, which commits industrialised countries to reducing their carbon emissions, expires this year.
The extension will cover the interim period between the first commitment period expiring and a new international emissions treaty due to come into force in 2020.