BAKU, Azerbaijan Countries agreed at the UNs COP29 climate conference to spend US$300 billion on annual climate finance. Here are some ways of understanding what that sum is worth:

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

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

US$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.

According to Forbes, Elon Musk's net worth stood at US$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.

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

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

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

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Chile — the world's largest copper-producing country— stood at US$335.5 billion in 2023, according to World Bank data.

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

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

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

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

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

  - Reuters