Global climate change is projected to threaten 7.6% of species with extinction at current levels, with unabated warming threatening the end of a staggering third of all life on Earth.
A study published in the journal Science, modelled the effect of warming and looked at how, using historic data of extinctions, it will likely threaten animals birds and insects.
Since temperatures rose above the preindustrial average in the 1960s, 19 extinctions have been attributed, at least in part, to climate change states the report by biologist Mark C Urban, of the University of Connecticut.
The proportion of extinctions attributed to climate change has increased 4% per decade.
His modelling shows extinctions will accelerate rapidly if global temperatures exceed 1.5°C. The highest-emission scenario would threaten approximately one-third of species, globally.
Amphibians; species from mountain, island and freshwater ecosystems; and species inhabiting South America, Australia and New Zealand face the greatest threats.
At current global temperatures, 1.3°C above the pre-industrial average, 1.6% of species are projected to become extinct .
At the 1.5°C Paris Agreement threshold its projected to increase to 1.8%
At 2.0°C that becomes 2.7%
Our current projected figure is 2.7°C at which 5% face extinction and the final runaway pathway of 5.4°C that becomes a terrifying 29.7%.
The report says the current emissions policies reduces extinction risk from 30 to 5%. But even losing 5% of species would be harmful, if not catastrophic, for biodiversity, ecosystems, and the people that rely on them.
The study supports the 1.5°C threshold, which would keep extinction threats below 2%.
It concludes, that besides limiting greenhouse gases, pinpointing which species to protect first will be critical for preserving biodiversity until anthropogenic climate change is halted and reversed.
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