The United Nations is warning of irreversible environmental catastrophe unless drastic changes are made. In a new report, the UN Human Development agency says carbon emissions need to be cut by at least half over the next several decades. Climate disasters affected more than 260 million people between 2000 and 2004. Ninety-eight percent of them were in the developing world. Lead report author Kevin Watkins said the onus is on the world’s richest nations.

Kevin Watkins: “It is not the world’s poor that have the deepest carbon footprint, and yet it is the world’s poor who will pay the highest price of our inaction if we fail to tackle the crisis while we still have an opportunity. That would be a double injustice.”

A major UN climate summit convenes next month in Bali, Indonesia.