The Climate Clock melds art, science, technology, and grassroots organizing to get the world to #ActInTime.

The project is centered on a simple tool: a clock that counts down the critical time window to reach zero emissions (our “Deadline”), while tracking our progress on key solution pathways (“Lifelines”).

By showing us what we need to do by when, the Clock frames our critical mission — a rapid and just transition to a safe climate future — and puts it at the very forefront of our attention.

To dramatically focus the world’s attention on our climate challenge. To help get every country in the world on a shared timeline, ‘synchronize our watches’ and act in a coordinated way around the globe. To make it clear how urgent it is to act now: We must do everything we can as fast as we can to transition our economy and society off of fossil fuels and towards a more just and sustainable society.

The Clock is a tool to hold politicians, policy makers, CEOs — and even ourselves — accountable, and to raise our climate targets in alignment with what scientists are telling us is necessary.

The Climate Clock is powered by a collaborative global team of scientists, artists, activists, educators, and concerned citizens from across the world. It is an official project of the Beautiful Trouble family of projects, in partnership with March for Science. See our About page for a full listing of all participants and partners.

The clock is based on scientific research by the IPCC, the world’s foremost authority on climate change, and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Common and Climate (MCC), a global leader on climate science and carbon budgets.

The clock shows the time left before we burn through our current “carbon budget” — the maximum amount of carbon we can burn and still have a 67% chance of staying under 1.5°C of warming, a red-line scientists have told us we must not cross, and signatories to the Paris Agreement committed to staying under.

See our Science page for more info.

A monumental challenge needs… a monument. And “public monuments,” our Arts & Research Director Katie Peyton says, “are a way we tell people what we value as a culture.” The number on the Climate Clock is arguably, “the most important number in the world,” and should be raised up in the center of our cities and our public consciousness. A monumental climate clock provides a constant, public and visible reminder of our climate challenge.

In the words of co-creator Gan Golan: “The Climate Clock originated from a simple, yet profound place: I had my first child. A daughter. She was born just one week before the IPCC released its devastating report on how little remaining time we had left to make progress on climate change, before the catastrophic effects became irreversible. I had already been an in-the-trenches climate activist for years, but this grounded my perspective in a wholly different way. What we did in the next few years would determine the world my daughter would live in, that all of us would live in, and I felt that timeline needed to be understood by everyone, everywhere.  Besides my wife, Andrew [Climate clock co-creator] was the first person that I told about the idea. He felt moved by it, and we’ve been hard at work together on it ever since.”

While the building owner has not officially confirmed it yet, it’s looking more and more likely that the Climate Clock will become a permanent — and iconic — monument in New York.

There are over 100 monumental and handheld Climate Clocks across the world, including New York, USA; Rome, Italy; London, UK; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and Beijing, China; as well as throughout Africa and India.

We are inviting cities across the world to install their own clocks in their own city-centers, and we can advise and support them in that process. At this point, we would not be doing that work for people in other cities, but rather helping them to go through all the steps to do it themselves. That’s important. This is not just about building a monument but helping to build movements. So we hope that the process of bringing this to one’s city helps strengthen their own climate efforts locally, as well as their city’s commitment to taking action on climate change.

Yes, the clocks will update (every 3 months) to reflect changing data and projections. If we can significantly reduce our carbon emission rates, the clock’s deadline/timeline will stretch out. If we speed up how fast we’re deploying renewable energy, the Lifeline that tracks what % of the world’s energy comes from renewables will count up faster, and get to 100% sooner. The clocks are responsive to human action.

We worked closely with her in 2019 when she came to New York to address the UN General Assembly. At her request we built her (the very first) hand-held climate clock, which she wanted to present to the UN Secretary General as a constant reminder of our urgent time-window for climate action. That clock is the basis of our portable clocks and maker-kit clocks. It is synchronized with the monument clock now installed in Union Square, NYC.

Yes, three sizes: monument, portable, and website widget. The monument clock, like the one in New York, is a huge public artwork installed in major public squares or on private buildings. The portable clock (like the one we built for Greta for her famous UN speech), can be used by climate acvitists. It can be ordered already assembled or be built with our maker kit by a University or High School class as part of our education program. The digital clock is a mobile app / website widget (& an iWatch), that runs on your phone or computer, links directly to action steps & solutions, and includes a “Newsfeed of Hope” of good climate news & eco-victories. See our full range of clocks on our Clock page.

We've had several exciting (and of course, challenging) conversations about the next stage. As of now, there would obviously be a huge media campaign focusing on what surpassing 1.5 means and amplifying the call for urgent action. Then, we would shift to a new target. Though limiting warming to 1.5 is the best window, there are always second targets, such as 2 degrees, that we could base the clock on. As we near that time, we would survey the global community who uses clocks or otherwise engages with the project and move forward based on that intel.

Definitely not. While scary, We hope this clock serves as a beacon of climate action, not despair. This number is not just a deadline, but a lifeline. There is a message of hope here. The number is not zero. It’s telling us there is still time, but we can’t waste it. The world is not ending in 4 years. Rather the clock is telling us that 4 years are our most critical window to prevent the impacts of climate change from becoming irreversible. After that, we still have time, it just becomes much harder to do anything. In short, what we do in the next 7 years will impact what happens in the next 100 years, even more. So, let us act with speed and wisdom.

Not at all. There have been several climate clocks, both online and in the physical world, that preceded the Climate Clock itself. Among them: the climate clock hosted by the Human Impact Lab at Concordia University, a primarily digital clock begun in 2015 by musican-activist David Usher and scientist Damon Matthews that was also light-projected several times in downtown Montreal. The 2° Window, a 2018 concept-project by our compatriots Andy McWilliams and Amay Kataria. The Bloomberg Carbon Clock, a webpage clock running since 2015. And, of course, our sister climate clock, a large, real-world light-sculpture installed by Fridays for Future on the famous Gasometer in Berlin in 2019.

We received no government or public money for this project. The building owner of the NYC clock provided no funds other than access to the clock. It is a largely volunteer project done by ordinary people because we believe in it. We have done this all with a shoestring budget. We hope to change that now that we’ve proved its value. Interested funders please contact info@climateclock.world.

The Climate Clock is regularly updated with the latest 1.5 Deadline data, as well as new "Lifelines" (most recently we launched a Loss and Damage Lifeline in line with the prominent demand for Loss and Damage to be on the agenda at COP27). To facilitate the updates, all clock holders simply have to follow the instructions here with direct access to the Climate Clock tech team for support. We will let you know if an update is required.