World

Climate change will escalate child health crisis due to malnutrition, says Gates

2024.09.17 00:23

By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON (Reuters) – Malnutrition is the world’s worst child health crisis and climate change will only make things more severe, according to Microsoft-co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates.

Between now and 2050, 40 million more children will have stunted growth and 28 million more will suffer from wasting, the most extreme and irreversible forms of malnutrition, as a result of climate change, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said in a report on Tuesday.

“Unless you get the right food, broadly, both in utero and in your early years, you can never catch up,” Gates told Reuters in an online interview last week, referring to a child’s physical and mental capacity, both of which are held back by a lack of good nutrition. Children without enough of the right food are also more vulnerable to diseases like measles and malaria, and early death.

“Around 90% of the negative effect of climate change works through the food system. Where you have years where your crops basically fail because of drought or too much rain,” he said.

Gates was speaking ahead of the publication of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual Goalkeepers report, which tracks progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), around reducing poverty and improving health. The report includes the projections above.

In 2023, the World Health Organization estimated that 148 million children experienced stunting and 45 million experienced wasting.

Gates called for more funding for nutrition, particularly through a new platform led by UNICEF aiming to co-ordinate donor financing, the Child Nutrition Fund, as well as more research. But he said the money should not be taken away from other proven initiatives, like routine childhood vaccinations, for this purpose.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Bill Gates, co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, gestures as he speaks during a summit on climate and growth at the Bercy Finance Ministry in Paris, France, December 5, 2023. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo

“(Nutrition) was under-researched … it’s eye-opening how important this is,” he added, saying initiatives like food fortification or improving access to prenatal multi-vitamins could be as effective as some vaccines in improving child health in the world’s poorest countries.

The Gates Foundation said in January it plans to spend more on global health this year than ever before – $6.8 billion – as wider funding efforts stall.



Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 76,227.42 1.18%
vested-xor
Vested XOR (VXOR) $ 3,405.08 99,999.99%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,946.75 8.66%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.22%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 198.57 6.37%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 604.27 1.71%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.28%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.559396 3.59%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.197267 0.93%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,950.78 8.74%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.410639 12.69%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.160753 0.87%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 4.96 3.48%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,447.42 7.27%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000019 2.72%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 27.67 1.90%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 76,080.38 1.03%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 2,942.26 8.45%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 12.76 5.04%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 381.15 0.78%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 2.34 1.59%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 4.20 2.08%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 6.27 0.36%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00 0.72%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 72.25 2.01%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,096.36 8.63%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 9.00 3.54%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 4.30 2.25%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 9.85 3.18%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000011 13.78%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 513.58 2.96%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 7.89 0.33%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.43 1.34%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.30%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.102919 6.28%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 20.51 4.77%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 163.49 1.38%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.115959 3.10%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.09%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 19.70 2.16%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 184.31 5.15%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.34945 5.05%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.093396 9.68%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 1.69 1.35%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 2.46 1.67%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 40.51 3.17%
first-digital-usd
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.999268 0.19%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.590624 7.52%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.678147 13.37%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 3.82 2.74%