The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation warns that climate change will put millions more children at risk of hunger, malnutrition and disease by 2050 unless immediate action is taken.

On Tuesday, the foundation released its eighth annual Goalkeepers report, “A Race to Nourish a Warming World.” The publication urges world leaders to increase global health spending to improve childhood nutrition and boost economic growth.

The report says that without intervention, from this year until 2050, climate change will cause 40 million more children to suffer from stunting, a condition that slows physical and mental growth, and 28 million more from wasting, a condition that leaves children emaciated and weak. The World Health Organization estimated that 148 million children experienced stunting in 2023 and that 45 million experienced wasting.

In an interview with VOA, billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said malnutrition affects more children than people think.

“When most people hear the word ‘malnutrition,’ they’ll think of situations where there’s a food shortage, an extreme food shortage like a famine. And although that does happen and it’s tragic, that’s not the main case for malnutrition,” Gates said, emphasizing that an inadequate diet also can lead to malnutrition.

Children in African countries are particularly at risk of hunger-related conditions, and the overall decline in foreign aid to the continent is worsening the problem. Only 25% of foreign aid is now going to Africa, down from 40% in 2010, the report said.

“The focus on helping the [African] continent, where there’s the most young people and the most growth and therefore the most potential, I’d say that’s quite a bit down from where we were before the [COVID-19] pandemic,” Gates said.

The report also points to the economic costs of malnutrition, which lessens physical and cognitive performance. Low-income countries lose between 3% and 16% of gross domestic product because of undernutrition, according to the World Bank, and finding solutions to malnutrition will not only save millions of children but will stimulate economic growth.

Investing in nutrition is the best way to fight the effects of climate change, Gates wrote in the report.

“Given that resources are so limited, what are the things that should be done to help these children? That’s the human lens that we need to apply to: ‘If I care about climate change, what am I doing to help?'” Gates told VOA.

The report emphasizes tools that have been successful in helping to solve malnutrition, build people’s resistance to climate change, and reduce childhood deaths. These include adopting new agricultural technologies, fortifying staple food items, and providing prenatal vitamins for pregnant women.

VOA’s Linord Moudou contributed to this report.