Climate change could cause extinction of nearly one in six species now alive on the planet, said a study published in Friday's edition of the journal Science. If warming continues at current rate, rise in the earth's temperature will be 4.3 degrees Celsius higher than it was before the onset of the industrial era. The emergence of this scenario will increase the risk of demise of as many as 16% of species around the world.

The calculation was derived by author Mark Urban, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, based on meta-analysis of 131 previous studies conducted for making predictions of how multiple species would be impacted by a warmer world.

Urban's statistical methods showed that the level of future climate change posed the highest risk of killing many species currently living on earth.

Currently, risk of global extinction is 2.8%, but the risk will only grow higher as earth becomes warmer. The global extinction risk would rise to 5.2%, even if the world manages to achieve its target of not letting temperatures to rise more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

However, if temperature rises by 3 degrees Celsius as per the current trend, Urban has estimated the extinction of 8.5% of species. And further existence of the trend will increase the risk of global extinction by twice, to 16%. This means, one in every six species.

"Extinction risks from climate change are expected not only to increase but to accelerate for every degree rise in global temperature. The signal of climate change-induced extinctions will become increasingly apparent if we do not act now to limit future climate change", said Urban.

Extinction of species would adversely affect ecosystems and what all benefits human seek from them.