King Charles and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan have activated a climate countdown clock at the Climate Innovation Forum in London as part of London Climate Action Week.
The climate countdown clock shows that there are just six years left to limit global warming to 1.5°C before the earth faces catastrophic global warming effects.
Nick Henry, chief executive and founder of Climate Action, said the climate countdown clock is a “powerful illustration of the scale of the climate emergency also reminds us there is still time to avert disaster.”
There are 150 version of the clock around the UK including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Southampton and Glasgow.
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Khan and the King activated the clock on stage with a red button made from plastic washed up on the Gower Peninsular in Wales that will be recycled into a plant pot to be given to the King.
“We need to align all actors – governments, cities, investors, businesses, and civil society – to move at speed and at scale,” said Henry.
“It is vital that we embrace the pro-growth opportunity of the net-zero transition and turn ambition into transformational action.”
Today with His Majesty King Charles III we launched the Climate Clock—a visual reminder of the urgency of the climate crisis. The climate emergency poses a threat not only to the future of our city but to the future of our world and that is why it must remain a key priority. pic.twitter.com/KzicMf44ua
— Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) June 28, 2023
King Charles also met with climate change minister Graham Stuart, who also took to the stage at the forum, saying the UK could “be proud of the fact that we have decarbonised more than any other major economy on Earth.
“But it’s not enough, and that’s one of the reasons why we’re funding innovation. I’m pleased to announce today that we’ve awarded £80 million to companies developing new clean technologies through our net-zero innovation portfolio.”
