The United States can either help write the next chapter of international climate policy or it can wait until the rest of the world has set rules it will have to abide by, U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres told a Washington, D.C., audience today.

During her opening remarks at the Carbon Forum North America conference, sponsored by the International Emissions Trading Association, Figueres said that far from being on its last legs, the international effort to set market-based caps on carbon dioxide emissions would continue to grow more robust and inclusive in the years to come and would eventually affect the entire global economy.

"I will admit that the [international carbon] market is at an all-time low right now," she said. But she argued that this was a time of transition, and predicted that the market would play a larger role in the future.

Last year's climate talks in Durban, South Africa, set the stage for a new agreement on emissions reductions, while keeping some countries on board for a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. The first period expires at the end of this year.

Figueres said new innovations are already improving the Clean Development Mechanism, and she predicted that the eventual agreement would be much more far-reaching: "We're not going to be playing dollhouse. We're now moving into the main house."

The only question, she said, was what role the United States would play in the new mechanism's development.

For now it is lagging behind, Figueres argued, because it has not taken the same steps to reduce emissions and boost clean energy alternatives that have been made even by nations that are sometimes considered underachievers on those issues.

Never mind the European Union, which already has a carbon trading program and which has signed on for a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. China, she said, is "frankly leaving the United States in the dust when it comes to clean energy development and taking advantage of those markets for the future."

She noted that China has already become the top producer of solar energy technology and is also taking a leadership role in wind energy.

Energy Information Administration head Adam Sieminski, who spoke on a later panel, reminded the forum that China had also become the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases in 2007 and had expanded its lead since. By 2035, he noted, China is likely to be responsible for a third of the world's emissions.

Figueres said China and its neighbors were still leading voices in climate mitigation with countries like Thailand and Vietnam looking at market-based mechanisms.

"Asia is the new center of the universe with respect to what is happening on climate," she said.

Figueres also acknowledged Australia for pricing carbon and moving to link its program with that of the European Union to find efficiencies. New Zealand is considering linking its own domestic carbon reduction program with Australia, she noted.

Meanwhile, several Latin American countries including Mexico have adopted or are considering carbon reduction mandates despite being responsible for far fewer emissions than the much wealthier United States, which remains the second largest producer of CO2 after China.

Figueres conceded that the United States had not been completely inactive. California's carbon market is the second largest in the world, she said, and a variety of private companies from HP to Walmart have also signed on to voluntary emissions reductions. But overall, she said, the country has ducked significant action even as it has experienced drought, record heat, devastating wildfires and other events that should have spurred it to action -- and ultimately, the United States will be needed.

"Both the U.S. and the international interests are better served by the active participation in the design and construction of the market mechanisms of both the U.S. government and the U.S. private sector," Figueres said.

"Solving climate change is no doubt going to require, as so many efforts have in the past, American ingenuity and American know-how," she added.