United Nations representatives from 194 countries reached an agreement on new global warming restrictions in Durban, South Africa, on Sunday. The deal is set to take effect by 2020 at the latest and it binds all countries to a commitment to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases. Still, critics say that the new deal, which forces all the biggest polluters to limit greenhouse gas emissions, is still too timid to slow global warming. A package of accords agreed after marathon UN talks in South Africa extended the 1997 Kyoto Protocol – the only global pact enforcing carbon cuts – allowing five more years to finalize a wider pact which has so far eluded negotiators. Kyoto's first phase – due to expire at the end of next year but now extended until 2017 – imposed limits only on developed countries, not emerging giants like China and India. The United States never ratified it. The countries also agreed the format of a fund to help poor nations tackle climate change. Greenpeace rally in Durban (Photo: EPA) The agreement on the package, reached in the early hours of Sunday, avoided a collapse of two weeks of climate talks and spared the blushes of host South Africa, whose stewardship of the fractious negotiations came under fire from rich and poor nations. Delegates agreed to start work next year on a new, legally binding accord to cut greenhouse gases, to be decided by 2015 and to come into force by 2020. Environmentalists said the participating governments wasted valuable time by focusing on a handful of specific words in the negotiating text, and failed to raise emissions cuts to a level high enough to reduce global warming. Sunday's deal follows years of failed attempts to impose legally-binding, international cuts on emerging polluters, such as China and India, as well as rich nations. Poor countries argue they should deserve leeway to catch up in development. The deal extends Kyoto until the end of 2017, ensuring there is no gap between commitment periods. EU delegates said lawyers would have to reconcile those dates with existing EU legislation. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook, Twitter and Google+