عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Features

COP29 - How Does $300 Billion Stack up?

A demonstrator sitting on the ground holds a poster during a climate protest in Lisbon, to coincide with the closing of the COP29 Climate Summit Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP)
A demonstrator sitting on the ground holds a poster during a climate protest in Lisbon, to coincide with the closing of the COP29 Climate Summit Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP)
TT
20
TT

COP29 - How Does $300 Billion Stack up?

A demonstrator sitting on the ground holds a poster during a climate protest in Lisbon, to coincide with the closing of the COP29 Climate Summit Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP)
A demonstrator sitting on the ground holds a poster during a climate protest in Lisbon, to coincide with the closing of the COP29 Climate Summit Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP)

Countries agreed at the UN's COP29 climate conference to spend $300 billion on annual climate finance. Here are some ways of understanding what that sum is worth:

MILITARY MIGHT

In 2023, governments around the globe spent $6.7 billion a day on military expenditure, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

That means the $300 billion annual climate finance target equates to 45 days of global military spending.

BURNING OIL

$300 billion is currently the price tag for all the crude oil used by the world in a little over 40 days, according to Reuters calculations based on global crude oil demand of approximately 100 million barrels/day and end-November Brent crude oil prices.

ELON MUSK

According to Forbes, Elon Musk's net worth stood at $321.7 billion in late November. The world's richest man and owner of social media platform X has co-founded more than half a dozen companies, including electric car maker Tesla and rocket producer SpaceX.

STORM DAMAGE

Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating and deadliest cyclones in US history, caused $200 billion in damage alone in 2005.

This year's climate-fueled Hurricane Helene could end up costing up to $250 billion in economic losses and damages in the US, according to estimates by AccuWeather. While preliminary estimates by Morningstar DBRS suggest Hurricane Milton, also supercharged by ocean heat, could cost both the insured and uninsured nearly $100 billion.

BEAUTY BUYS

The global luxury goods market is valued at 363 billion euros ($378 billion) in 2024, according to Bain & Company.

COPPER PLATED

The GDP of Chile - the world's largest copper producing country - stood at $335.5 billion in 2023, according to World Bank data.

GREECE'S BAIL OUT

Euro zone countries and the International Monetary Fund spent some 260 billion euros ($271 billion) between 2010 and 2018 on bailing out Greece - the biggest sovereign bailout in economic history.

BRITISH BONDS

Britain's new government needs to borrow more to fund budget plans. Gilt issuance is expected to rise to 296.9 billion pounds ($372.05 billion) for the current financial year.

TECH TALLY

A 10% share of tech giant Microsoft is worth just over $300 billion, according to LSEG data. Meanwhile the market cap for US oil major Chevron stood at $292 billion.

CRYPTO

The annual climate finance target amounts to 75% of the total value of the global market for crypto currency Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency.

Alternatively, 3 million Bitcoin would cover the annual climate finance target as the world's largest cryptocurrency closes in on the $100,000 mark following a rally fueled by Donald Trump winning the Nov. 5 US presidential election.

Most Viewed

 
Features

Alaska: A Source of Russian Imperial Nostalgia

FILE - A canoe, bottom right, glides on Mendenhall Lake, in front of the Mendenhall Glacier, on Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)
FILE - A canoe, bottom right, glides on Mendenhall Lake, in front of the Mendenhall Glacier, on Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)
TT
20
TT

Alaska: A Source of Russian Imperial Nostalgia

FILE - A canoe, bottom right, glides on Mendenhall Lake, in front of the Mendenhall Glacier, on Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)
FILE - A canoe, bottom right, glides on Mendenhall Lake, in front of the Mendenhall Glacier, on Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)

Alaska, the US state that will host the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on Friday, is a source of imperial nostalgia and often less-than-serious territorial claims in Russia.

The territory that Russia sold to the United States in 1867 is now a symbol of the entwined history of the countries, whose relations have been severely damaged since Russia launched its offensive in Ukraine in 2022, AFP reported.

To some experts, the summit in Alaska evoked memories of the thaw between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War.

"It's a classically orchestrated summit, like in the era of detente," Russian political scientist Fyodor Lukyanov said on Telegram.

"Its symbolic significance is the absence of intermediaries: the powers, so to speak, decide for themselves," he added, saying that China is "not close" to Alaska and that Europe is "as far away as possible".

Fur trading hub

But beyond being a unique meeting place, Alaska also fuels Russian memories of the Tsarist empire, the historic predecessor of the Soviet Union.

"For Russia, Alaska symbolizes the peak of an expansion," Alexander Baunov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said on the center's website.

It was "when the Russian continental empire had, for the only time, succeeded in crossing an ocean like the European empires", Baunov said.

A Russian colony since the 18th century, Alaska was eventually sold to the United States for $7.2 million in 1867 by Tsar Alexander II.

The remote territory was economically very difficult for the Russians to exploit and at the time its sale was welcomed by the Imperial Court as the country was struggling economically.

But the transaction later came to be seen as a regrettable bargain after what formerly was a fur trading hub turned out to house crucial natural resources: gold and oil.

'Our bears'

In recent years, the price at which Alaska was sold, considered by some to be ridiculously low, and the legal validity of the transaction have become regularly recurring debates in Russia.

In July 2022, in the midst of patriotic fervor in Russia and as tensions soared between Moscow and Washington following the offensive against Ukraine, the Alaska issue resurfaced.

The speaker of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, spoke of "lands to be returned", describing Alaska as a "disputed territory".

Russia's authorities are apparently not interested in reclaiming it.

In 2014, Vladimir Putin, asked by a pensioner about the possibility, replied: "My dear, why do you need Alaska?" adding the territory was "too cold".

Still, the idea of reclaiming Alaska is an endless source of memes widely circulating on Russian social media.

One of the most famous claims that "our soul" suffered from the loss of Alaska because "it's where our bears live".

The recapture of Alaska is even mentioned in a 1990s hit by a rock band Putin likes, Lyube, with the lyrics: "Stop messing around, America... And give back our Alaskan lands."