Thread by @LHSummers

Today in Venice @Tharman_S @NOIweala & I presented a report to G20 fin. ministers & central bank govs on financing for #pandemicpreparedness. At press conference I said: For none of us is this our first rodeo w a global issue that requires a global collective response. #G20HLIP

For all of us, this is the first time where we have seen one where the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars is likely to prevent the need for spending tens of trillions of dollars down the road.

It is nearly certain we will see another COVID, the question is whether we will as international community be ready.

This is a test of our capacity as a crisis plays out to prepare for the next one. The world had that crisis as WW1 ended & it failed. The question w this pandemic is will the world do better? An important part of question will be answered when leaders meet in Rome in Oct.

We are encouraged by the response our #G20HLIP report received. Ultimately, if this isn’t the moment to mobilize people to prepare for pandemics, then when would that moment ever be, given the traumas associated with what we have been through

Pandemic threats, along with climate change, are going to in our judgement define the international challenge for finance ministers, for foreign ministers and for heads of state going forward.

Security & prosperity initially depended on balancing power and trade. Today the greatest threats we face are climate change & pandemics. We regard them as differing in their horizons & differing in ways in which they play out over time but as being comparable and grave threats.

Security today depends on the capacity for global cooperation to meet global challenges in the way that it once depended on the ability to balance power.

This is not all negative and about challenges. Because of what would not have been possible even two decades ago – given progress in science, information technology.

The opportunity to invest tens of billions of dollars, and avoid tens of trillions of dollars in costs, is the public sector equivalent of buying Amazon stock in the 1990s -- it offers immense returns and will be profoundly regretted by anyone who miss the opportunity.

Read our full report on financing #pandemicpreparedness.
@Tharman_S @NOIweala #G20HLIP
pandemic-financing.org