Climate change has emerged as the single greatest threat to the world`s natural World Heritage sites, affecting nearly half of them, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)`s recent World Heritage Outlook 4 report.

The report evaluated 271 sites designated by UNESCO for their natural and cultural significance and found that 117, or about 43%, face "high" or "very high" levels of threat from climate change.

The figure represents a sharp increase compared to 2020, when 33% of sites were under such risk, and 2017, when the rate stood at 27%.

According to IUCN, climate change remains not only the greatest danger to heritage sites but also the fastest-rising one.