30,000 face extinction

Already facing the threat of habitat destruction, hundreds of plant and animal species are now under further pressure from manmade climate change, the IUCN yesterday said in its updated “Red List of Threatened Species”.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added 1,840 new species to its catalogue of plants and animals that risk extinction.

The list now contains more than 30,000 species under threat of disappearing.

“Climate change is adding to the multiple threats species face, and we need to act urgently and decisively to curb the crisis,” said IUCN acting director general Grethel Aguilar.

The IUCN said it had witnessed genuine declines in 73 species since its last assessment.

More than one million species are now at risk of vanishing as insatiable human demand puts them in danger of habitat loss, overexploitation, pollution and climate change.

Releasing its Red List update in the middle of COP25 climate talks in Madrid, the IUCN said it was increasingly clear that climate change on its own was a growing threat.

The latest update showed that 37 percent of Australia’s freshwater fish species were threatened with extinction. Dozens of species of birds and plants are now also threatened by rising temperatures, the list found.