Published Tuesday, 15 December 2009
World leaders have started arriving to try to rescue the floundering talks.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's arrival on Tuesday comes a day after the talks were suspended for several hours when poor countries, led by African nations, staged a walkout over accusations that richer countries were seeking to dodge their obligations to cut carbon emissions.
The Prince of Wales is also heading to the conference, to give a key-note speech to delegates, highlighting how mankind has the power to bring the planet to the brink - but also has the power to bring the world back on balance.
Speaking to UTV from Copenhagen, the DUP's Mr Poots said: "We're all of the one view that there has to be a universal agreement.
"Therefore there's little point of European countries signing up if they don't get the USA, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Russia and all of these large leaders signing up to an agreement.
"That is imperative."
The Green Party has already welcomed the decision by the Environment Minister to attend the summit, which is scheduled to conclude on Friday.
"At least Minister Poots is making an attempt to understand climate change, something his predecessor failed when he refused to attend the Bali Climate Change talks in 2007," said Green Party MLA Brian Wilson.
Mr Poots' predecessor, current Finance Minister Sammy Wilson, publicly stated on many occasions he did not believe in man-made climate change.