Why Bill Gates wants a COP for global health

Bill Gates says he is "jealous" of the annual focus on climate change at the United Nations climate talks and believes progress on global health risks sliding backward as donors increasingly focus their funding on the environment. Issues such as maternal health and nutrition should top the list on the "report card for humanity," the billionaire philanthropist said at a breakfast event Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. However, he warned that "just because something else is popular, shifting aid in that direction, in the end, we actually could go backwards [on global health]." "I don't think we will," Gates said, adding that the case for funding things such as vaccines remained "compelling," but he said resources depend on advocates continuing to champion global health in an era where aid budgets are under strain. "I wouldn't say that the global health field understands how to keep global health on the agenda in terms of attention and finance, as much as we should," Gates said. “I'd love to have a global health meeting like COP 28 where 70,000 people came and talked about children surviving and being fully nourished in their brains and their bodies," he added. "I'm jealous of that attention," he joked to laughs from the audience. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced this week that it would spend $8.6 billion this year, a 4% increase from 2023. Gates said Tuesday that it would be "kind of a crime" if Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria did not raise as much or more than they did in the past in their upcoming replenishments. If aid budgets were at the U.N. target of 0.7% of gross national income, Gates said, then tackling climate change would not force donors to skimp on things “like making sure all the world's children have vaccines." Even aid champions like Sweden have cut their spending in recent years, with concerns that The Netherlands could also reduce its budget after the far-right Party for Freedom, with an anti-aid platform, won the most votes late last year. Asked if he was concerned about the potential impact of elections in the United States and Europe this year, Gates replied “absolutely.” Pointing out that the U.S. is a key donor to global AIDS initiative PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and Gavi, he said: "I think the U.S. is a case where the election will have a consequence that you might have a reduction in that aid budget."