International delegates vote to replace leap seconds with leap hour

International delegates from 69 countries have voted to phase out the use of leap seconds in favor of a “leap hour” approach. The decision was reached during a conference held by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in France.

Since 1972, leap seconds have been added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to reconcile the discrepancy between highly precise atomic clocks and the Earth's irregular rotation. However, these one-second adjustments have caused significant technical challenges for digital infrastructure, including telecommunications, financial systems, and cloud computing services.

Under the new regulation, the allowed deviation between atomic time and astronomical time will be expanded. This will allow for larger, less frequent corrections—potentially in the form of an hour—rather than irregular single-second increments, thereby reducing the risk of software errors in systems that rely on precise timekeeping.