LONDON — 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 (Sept 17).

"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 per cent 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.

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