Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Barack Obama gave a huge hint about what one of his top priorities will be after he relinquishes the Oval Office in January: climate change.

Obama made the remarks in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times in his home state of Hawaii.

"What makes climate change difficult is that it is not an instantaneous catastrophic event," Obama told The Times. "It's a slow-moving issue that, on a day-to-day basis, people don't experience and don't see."

Obama — who called the charts that his climate advisers brief him almost daily on "terrifying" — said that his efforts to slow the planet's warming will be the most "consequential legacy" of his presidency.

And he's showing no signs of slowing down even as his return to civilian life is imminent, going so far as to hint that he hopes that he will be more effective at fighting climate change after he leaves office.

"My hope is that maybe as ex-president I can have a little more influence on some of my Republican friends, who I think up until now have been resistant to the science," Obama said.

Read The New York Times' full interview, or watch it below: