The Saskatchewan Party government says it will not be keeping its election promise on cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

During the 2007 election campaign, the Saskatchewan Party adopted the NDP government's targets to reduce gases like carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change and global warming.

The Saskatchewan Party platform called on the province to stabilize emissions by 2010, and reduce them 32 per cent by the year 2020.

But now, Environment Minister Nancy Heppner said that target will have to change.

"The 32 per cent by 2020 will be different," she said Monday.

Heppner said she will make an announcement next month, when the government tables its new law governing greenhouse gas emissions.

She admits it won't be as stringent as what the party proposed while campaigning.

The reason for the change is the current economic downturn, Heppner said.

Saskatchewan is weathering the downturn quite well and that's not something the government wants to jeopardize, she said.

"We think that the plan that we are going to be proposing in May is a very good balance between making sure [the economy] stays strong but still doing something substantial on the environmental front," Heppner said.

Instead of the old targets, the province will adopt federal targets, which call for a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020, she said.

NDP environment critic Sandra Morin said the Saskatchewan Party is making a mistake.

"We're talking about a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are not going to be targeted in terms of the reduction," Morin said.

"That's just not acceptable for a province [that's] one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions in all of Canada."

The government said its new plan will include levies for polluters who can't meet the new targets.

The government said that money would stay in Saskatchewan to develop new technology to fight climate change.