Osama Faisal / AP Activists 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. DOHA, 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. 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. All sides say the Doha
decisions fell far short of recommendations by scientists for
tougher action. Though expectations we