U.S. keeps climate goal despite Senate setback

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States stands by its 2020 target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions despite the Senate's failure to pass legislation to fight climate change, the top U.S. climate envoy said on Monday.

Todd Stern told Reuters a U.S. proposal, made last year ahead of U.N. climate talks, to reduce emissions 17 percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels or 3 percent from 1990 levels was still on the table.

"We're not moving away from what we submitted last year," Stern said in an interview.

Stern's comments were meant to reassure international counterparts after the U.S. Senate dropped efforts to put emissions curbs in an energy bill that is now focused narrowly on reforming offshore drilling.

The House of Representatives passed a bill with emissions limits last year, but it cannot become law without a similar initiative in the Senate. With November congressional elections looming and Republicans largely opposed to climate curbs, that is unlikely to happen this year.

Lack of legislation complicates life for Stern, who represents the United States at international climate change talks. A climate law would have given the U.S. position a "positive shot in the arm," but the fundamentals of global negotiations would not change without it, Stern said.

"I talked with one country last week and they asked me, 'Well, now that the Senate didn't pass a bill, what's the U.S. going to put on the table?'" Stern recounted.

"And I said, 'You know, it's on the table. We put it on the table last year. We're not backing away from that.'"

Stern said a combination of regulation and legislation would help achieve the U.S. goal but he declined to lay out specifics. President Barack Obama remained committed to passing tough energy and climate change legislation, he said.

Stern said he did not rule out the possibility of climate legislation passing next year.

"The president has made it perfectly clear that he continues to be very significantly committed to the goal of getting significant energy and climate legislation done," he said.

The November 2 elections could complicate that. If Republicans take control over one or both houses of Congress, Obama, a Democrat, would have even less likelihood of passing a bill that the opposition party has equated with an energy tax.

The White House has said the Environmental Protection Agency could regulate greenhouse gas emissions if necessary, but legislation is still its preferred option.

(Editing by Patricia Wilson and Cynthia Osterman)