WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton informed representatives of the world’s largest greenhouse-gas-emitting economies that the Unites States was ready to move forward to combat global warming.

Clinton spoke Monday, April 27 at an international conference (the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate) in which she urged all the countries present to work together towards an international agreement to halt pollution that is responsible for current climate changes. By December, the committee hopes to replace the current emissions procedure, the Kyoto Protocol passed in 1997, with a new international agreement.

“The United States is fully engaged and ready to lead and determined to make up for lost time, both at home and abroad,” Clinton said during the symposium.

Clinton also acknowledged that each economy was responsible for climate-changing emissions in a different way, but that all economies should work together to achieve the common goal.

China is currently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gasses. However, several Chinese leaders claim that a large portion of their emissions is the result of manufacturing goods for export.

Proposed legislation calls for a reduction of greenhouse gases by 20 percent in just 11 years. According to Clinton, it is through new, cooperative agreements that people everywhere will be able to reach their “legitimate aspiration for a higher standard of living.”

The question in everybody’s mind now is: what next?