UPDATE 2-Canada aims for lower climate goal than G8 average

L'AQUILA, Italy, July 9 - Canada played down on Thursday the goal set by the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized nations of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent and indicated it might not cut as deeply as that.

The G8 agreed on Wednesday in its summit in L'Aquila, Italy, to support a goal of cutting global emissions by 50 percent by 2050 and of cutting emissions in developed countries by 80 percent "in aggregate".

"It really fits together well with the pathway that Canada is on, that the government adopted, to reduce our emissions by minus 20 percent by 2020, and then by 2050 to reduce them by as much as 60 to 70 percent," Environment Minister Jim Prentice told CBC TV.

Russia said late on Wednesday that it would not be able to achieve the 80 percent target by 2050.

Prentice said the 80 percent target did not mean that each developed country had to deliver exactly that much.

"This is an aspirational goal of developed countries collectively to try to reduce emissions by 80 pct by 2050. But it is an aspirational goal and a collective goal."

Prentice later told reporters at the summit that the reason a target lower than 80 percent was appropriate and realistic for Canada was that it was a cold, large country with a growing population and industrial base.

"Amongst the developed countries, some will undertake targets that are higher (than 80 percent) and some that are lower," he said.

He said that by the time of December's Copenhagen conference, designed to reach a global climate change agreement, Canada would have put out a full suite of policies that would enable it to meet its targets.

Production in the Albertan oil sands has boosted and is expected to continue to increase Canada's emissions. Canada has puts its emphasis on trying to capture carbon and store it but the technology is still nascent.

"Really when you are speaking of 2050, by that time some of the significant technological changes that are necessary will have been made and so Canada's position is quite consistent with that," Prentice said.