Diplomats from major greenhouse gas polluting countries such as the United States, China, and India will be participating in a forum at the U.S. State Department on Monday to work towards a U.N. agreement to reduce global warming. This meeting of major economies aims to kick-start climate discussions leading up to the December deadline in Copenhagen to create a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will open the meeting, where participants will discuss issues such as technology cooperation. The major economies involved are Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. Denmark, the host of the December meeting, was also invited to attend. Environmentalists and others believe that the U.S.'s commitment to combatting climate change is essential for any global agreement. Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council activist group stated that without U.S. leadership, reaching a global warming agreement in Copenhagen would be challenging. President Barack Obama has emphasized the connection between addressing climate change and aiding the struggling economy, and called for the meeting to restart the major economies process initiated by his predecessor, George W. Bush. The efforts of the Bush administration were met with skepticism by many participants and were viewed as a distraction from the main U.N. climate change negotiations. Obama's goal is to reduce U.S. emissions by approximately 15 percent by 2020, bringing them back to 1990 levels. In contrast to Bush, who opposed the Kyoto Protocol and other emissions limits, Obama's administration is advocating for action on climate change. Most recently, they have declared that carbon dioxide emissions pose a threat to human health and welfare, allowing the EPA to regulate them as pollutants. While no regulations have been implemented yet, Obama prefers legislation over regulation for addressing this issue. Legislation is currently being discussed in the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, with former Vice President Al Gore advocating for the passage of a carbon-capping law this year. Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy for climate change, did not provide specific details on what the United States must present at the Copenhagen conference in December to show U.S. leadership. He did, however, mention that the Obama administration's strategy differs greatly from that of the Bush administration. Stern stated that the Bush team was not primarily interested in reaching an international agreement, whereas the current administration is seeking cooperation on a significant, potentially transformative scale.