Former presidents, prime ministers and leaders of international institutions have come together to call for an emergency G20 Summit The former leaders also highlighted the danger that a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks in the developing world could re-infect richer nations LONDON: Three former British prime ministers have signed a joint plea from 225 world leaders for a $2.5 trillion package of support for developing countries threatened with disaster due to the coronavirus pandemic. Former presidents, prime ministers and leaders of international institutions have come together to call for an emergency G20 Summit to agree a global health and economic recovery plan that would “send out a message of hope for the future.” The letter — whose signatories include former UK prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and John Major, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Hungarian philanthropist George Soros — warns that the world faces a deep recession that threatens hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people with unemployment, destitution and starvation. “Without action from the G20, the recession caused by the pandemic will only deepen, hurting all economies and the world’s most marginalised and poorest peoples and nations the most,” the former leaders said. “Representing, as it does, 85 percent of the world’s nominal GDP (gross domestic product), the G20 has the capacity to lead the mobilisation of resources on the scale required. We urge leaders to do so immediately.” The former leaders also highlighted the danger that a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks in the developing world could re-infect richer nations that may have already controlled their own outbreaks. The G20, made up of the world’s largest economies and currently chaired by Saudi Arabia, is seen as the most promising avenue through which to coordinate a global response. “The world is at a critical moment,” Brown said. “Without a G20 leaders’ meeting online soon and certainly long before the end of November, a vacuum in global leadership will open up just at the time when we need global action most — to avoid a second wave of Covid coming out of the poorest countries and to move the world economy from rescue operations to planning a global recovery.” The pandemic has already had a devastating effect on living standards and the global economy. The UN has warned of a worldwide recession that could plunge over 420 million more people into extreme poverty. The World Food Programme announced that 265 million people are likely to suffer from crisis levels of hunger — an increase of 130 million over pre-pandemic levels.