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Stormont minister attends global summit

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Participants of the United Nations Climate Change Conference walk past a globe at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen
Northern Ireland's Environment Minister Edwin Poots is due to attend the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen.

He will be updated by Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, on progress being made at the conference.

The international summit is designed to achieve a globally binding deal to reduce emissions.

"Mr Miliband is leading negotiations on behalf of the UK, and therefore I felt it was important for me, as the Environment Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive, to show my support in this very difficult task of reducing emissions globally", Mr Poots said.

"All countries must commit to tackling the problem, otherwise economic activity will just be displaced and there will be no overall benefit to the environment."

The Green Party has welcomed the decision by the Environment Minister to attend the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen.

"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", Green Party MLA Brian Wilson said.

"No one should underestimate the importance of what is going on in Copenhagen. The world is uniting behind this issue; we are finally realising that this is the issue future generations will judge us on."

Mr Poots' predecessor, current Finance minister Sammy Wilson, publicly stated on many occasions he did not believe in man-made climate change.

The UN summit, which started a week ago, is scheduled to conclude on Friday, when more than 100 world leaders will attend in an effort to agree a new global treaty on climate change.

© UTV News

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