The Saskatchewan government says new carbon emissions reduction goals set by the federal government are rather “ambitious”.

The new goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 40-45 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.

Provincial Environment Minister Warren Kaeding says he’s concerned over whether these new numbers are achievable.

“We were working hard towards their very ambitious goal of 30 percent reduction by 2030, and I know we’ve got a number of initiatives that we’ve talked about numerous times before,” said Kaeding. “Our industry partners, our sectors are all working very hard at working towards that 30 percent goal. The very ambitious targets that were released this morning is definitely concerning to us.”

Kaeding says for the province to be able to meet the new goals, there needs to be more funding from the federal government.

“Anything is attainable, if you throw enough resources at it,” said Kaeding. “That has been our ask of the federal government, is that, if you want us to get to these very, very ambitious targets that you have set out for us, we’re going to need significant support from our federal government to support innovation to help our industry sectors utilize the opportunities they may have in front of them to get to those ambitious targets.”

He adds despite having a conversation with the Federal Environment Minister just hours prior, the new numbers came as a shock.

“We’re quite disappointed with the lack of consultation with the target that they actually introduced in their federal budget, “said Kaeding. “That one, we were not formally made aware of, they indicated they were going up, but there was really no fixed number that they were going to provide us.”

The Canadian government’s new targets come as the United States is hosting a virtual climate summit with world leaders.