Global Fund establishes pioneering climate and health fund to speed up global motion – press releases

Global Fund establishes a pioneering climate and health fund to speed up global motion

The recent fund targets countries most vulnerable to climate change and provides urgent support to adapt and strengthen health systems to guard thousands and thousands of individuals from the increasing impacts of climate change.

January 21, 2025

– The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) – in partnership with the Gates Foundation and Sanofi, through its philanthropic organization Foundation S – has launched a $50 million Climate and Health Catalytic Fund. This initiative goals to assist countries and vulnerable communities combat the health impacts of climate change while constructing low-carbon and climate-resilient health systems.

In response to growing calls for motion from countries, the Global Fund and its partners have come together to make funds available quickly. This $50 million fund, supported by a $40 million alignment agreement with the Gates Foundation and $10 million from Sanofi through Foundation S, represents a necessary investment for climate and health. It lays the inspiration for a broader initiative to scale up efforts to satisfy urgent and growing requests from countries that emphasize the necessity for extra financing to deal with these pressing challenges.

Climate change is one in all the best health challenges of our time. It destabilizes health systems, deepens inequalities and undermines the social, environmental and economic foundations mandatory for good health. For essentially the most vulnerable – those already fighting conflict, disease and poverty – climate change shouldn’t be a distant threat but a gift crisis, often pushing them beyond their limits.

The increasing intensity of maximum weather events is disrupting rainy seasons and prolonging droughts. Women and youngsters, essentially the most vulnerable groups, are disproportionately affected, bearing the brunt of those crises. Without quick and targeted motion, these groups will face terrible and potentially tragic consequences.

“Malawi has felt the direct and severe health impacts of climate change, and the most vulnerable are bearing the brunt of it, despite having contributed almost nothing to solving the problem,” said Hon Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Malawi’s Minister of Health. This fund is a very important step towards ensuring the health of those most in danger is protected. By specializing in constructing resilient health systems, we are going to find a way to more effectively reply to climate-related health emergencies, reply to the changing disease landscape, and proceed to offer essential services that improve people’s health.”

This fund will leverage the flexible and revolutionary nature of philanthropic capital and supply a targeted financial stream to high-risk countries to scale up their response to climate change and health.

“The impact of climate change on our society poses a serious threat to the health and resilience of some of our most vulnerable communities,” said Paul Hudson, CEO of Sanofi. “We are pleased to join the Climate and Health Catalytic Fund with a $10 million contribution from Sanofi’s S Foundation – The Sanofi Collective to help support and protect our most at-risk populations. With less than 5% of climate change adaptation funding currently allocated to health – most of it unavailable to the countries that need it most – such collaboration is urgently needed to make a real difference.”

The Catalytic Fund for Climate and Health will enable vulnerable countries to higher address the health impacts of climate change. It will support ministries of health, communities and other national stakeholders in developing and implementing national and locally-led solutions to guard health from the increasing impacts of climate change, in addition to developing robust proposals to extend future funding. It can even support resilient health systems and promote the adoption of low-carbon, sustainable health technologies.

“There are deep inequalities in climate change health risks, adaptive capacity and access to finance,” said Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund. “Already 71% of the Global Fund’s investments, including over 80% of our malaria financing, are being deployed in the 50 countries most vulnerable to climate change, underscoring the reality that infectious diseases and climate change affect the same poorest and most marginalized communities as the hardest. Moreover, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events increases the risk of infectious diseases. We commend the Gates Foundation and the S Foundation – The Sanofi Collective for their leadership in establishing this pioneering catalytic fund to help countries adapt to the urgent and growing challenges posed by the health impacts of climate change, both by strengthening the resilience of their health systems, as well as in responding to specific crises.”

“The Global Fund is uniquely positioned to address the health impacts of climate change, building on its established efforts to help vulnerable countries fight infectious diseases and strengthen health systems,” said Bience Gawanas, vice-chairman of the Global Fund Board. “With a proven partnership model based on country ownership, community engagement, local implementation, innovation and support from technical partners, and global expertise, the Global Fund can effectively leverage its approach to address these challenges.”