Canadian Environment Minister Prentice Says Canada Won’t Match G-8 Emission Cuts, Theophilos Argitis in L’Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009

July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice said his country won’t be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as other developed nations, citing Canada’s cold climate and reliance on energy production.

Prentice, speaking to reporters in L’Aquila, Italy, said Canada won’t change its emission plans even after the country signed on to a Group of Eight pledge for stronger cuts.

“Amongst the developed countries, some countries will undertake targets that are higher than that and some will have targets that are less than that,” Prentice said.

The G-8 leaders yesterday backed for the first time an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gases by industrialized countries by mid-century and pledged to prevent temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. Canada will maintain its target for a 60 percent to 70 percent cut in emissions by 2050, Prentice said today, citing the country’s geography, climate, “industrial base” and population growth.

He said it was important for countries to have “realistic” plans ahead of global climate talks later this year.

Canada, a major commodity exporter, sits on the largest pool of oil reserves outside of the Middle East. It also has one of the coldest climates.

‘Important Advance’

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said separately today that the G-8 climate change agreement is an “important advance” toward a global agreement.

“The important advance here is that we have a consensus among developed countries on targets,” Harper said in L’Aquila. “We’re still a long way from having everybody, including the large developing economies, accept targets and that’s the next step that has to happen.”

Canada, the U.S.’s largest trading partner, has said it will miss its Kyoto target to cut emissions 6 percent through 2012 from 1990 levels. Instead, Canadian discharges have grown by more than 20 percent from the base year.

Under the current plan, Canada also has changed its base year to 2006.