Environment Minister Jim Prentice says the prime minister "always" planned to go to Copenhagen if a critical mass of world leaders attended, answering criticism that Stephen Harper was just following U.S. President Barack Obama.

"The prime minister always said that he would go to Copenhagen if there was critical mass of world leaders who were going there for the leaders' session, which is at the end of the Copenhagen conference," Prentice told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.

Prentice also made a point of saying that Obama -- unlike Harper -- had yet to announce whether he would be attending the leaders' meeting.

"That's the session where the leaders will be there, that's the critical session, and the prime minister is in fact saying he's going there and the president hasn't," Prentice said.

Obama will attend Day 3 of the Dec. 7-18 conference, while the leaders' segment is slated for the final two days.

Opposition critics had hammered away at the Conservatives for taking a passive wait-and-see approach to Copenhagen, rather than a more active role.

As recently as Wednesday, Ottawa had indicated the prime minister would not be travelling to the Danish capital for the international climate conference. Harper said in the House of Commons that he would only attend "if there is a meeting of all major leaders."

Obama then announced he would attend, along with China's Premier Wen Jaibo. Harper then followed suit.

Politicians from at least 65 countries are set to meet in Denmark to come up with a new climate change agreement that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

"These are tough negotiations and we're going to make sure that we're there, that we're well positioned, and that we have good people at the table, and Canada will be well represented at Copenhagen," said Prentice.

Prentice said the government has no plans to change its goals, which he explained includes a 20 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020 compared to 2006 levels. That roughly matches the U.S. targets -- reducing emissions 17 per cent below 2005 levels.

"That is what we believe is a realistic and very ambitious target for our country," Prentice said.

He was responding to criticism from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who criticized Canada's climate change goals and said it should be setting an example for the world because it will host the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario next year.

"There's many areas of this where Canada has been in front for several years," said Prentice. "We're working together with the Americans on a continental basis to make sure that this works, that we have a cap-and-trade system."

He also confirmed Canada would contribute to the $10 billion fund created Saturday by the Commonwealth countries to help fund nations at low sea level who are most threatened by climate change, which could lead to them becoming completely submerged.

He said there is not yet a firm amount as to how much Canada will contribute.

"In general terms, if you consider Canada is responsible for two per cent of the world's emissions you can quantify (the amount) in that range of several hundred million dollars," he said.

John Bennett, senior policy advisor to the Sierra Club of Canada, said that even with this investment, Canada has still made little progress.

"Unless Canada is actually prepared to make some domestic action that's real, it's pretty well meaningless," Bennett told CTV News Channel.

Canada has thrown away an opportunity to take the lead and show the U.S. what it should do, Bennett said.

"The U.S. is talking about a hard cap on industry, which is an absolute limit on the number of emissions that can come from an industry," he said. "In Canada you have a soft cap on intensity targets, which allow emissions to continue to grow."

He said Canada is postponing the inevitable, and will eventually have to do something to fight climate change.

A new poll released Sunday found that 62 per cent of 1,000 Canadians surveyed felt that a climate change deal should be one of the top priorities at the Copenhagen summit.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll found that three quarters of Europeans and just 53 per cent of Americans felt the same way.