Nearly all coral reefs risk collapse in 50 years: IUCN

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The IUCN warns that 96 percent of the world's shallow-water coral reef systems are critically endangered and face an extremely high risk of collapse by 2075. Climate change is identified as the main driver of the threat.

Nearly all of the world's shallow-water coral reefs face an "extremely high risk" of collapse by 2075 due to climate change, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned Thursday. In the first global assessment of its kind, the world authority on threatened wildlife classified 96 percent of the planet's coral reef systems as "critically endangered" -- its highest risk category.