1st Carbon Neutral Stock Exchange — Maldives Stock Exchange

June 16th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan

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The Maldives has done a lot to try to protect itself from the catastrophic effects it is expecting as a result of climate change, including holding underwater government meetings, buying a new island, and building massive wind farms. Adding one more achievement to its record, it is now home to the first “carbon neutral” stock exchange in the world.

The Maldives Stock Exchange (MSE) teamed up with CarbonNeutral Company, a UK-based company, to measure and offset its carbon emissions.

“The company said that it had measured greenhouse gas emissions associated with the MSE’s energy consumption, waste disposal, company controlled vehicles, business travel and staff commuting and purchased carbon credits to offset the emissions,” BusinessGreen reports.

11 tons of carbon emissions associated with the MSE have now been offset by a wind farm in India.

The MSE plans to continue finding ways to cut its own emissions directly as well.

Ibrahim Nasir, chief executive at the MSE, hopes that due to its new carbon neutral status, companies listed on the stock exchange will also look into and implement carbon emissions reduction programs.

Additionally, he says, “Organisations that implement comprehensive carbon reduction programmes can enhance their corporate reputation by showing customers, staff and prospects that they are taking direct action against climate change.”

With Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed’s commitment to making all of Maldives carbon neutral by 2020, it is hoped and expected that many other Maldives companies and institutions will be cutting and offsetting their carbon emissions soon.

Image Credit: bobsuperfoto via flickr/CC license

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Tags: carbon neutral, carbon reduction, maldives, Maldives Stock Echange, Mohamed Nasheed, MSE, Nasheed

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Sdwesley3

So…here it is…The US government places the hammer on Energy companies, making the government look kind of good, in a way. Yet, by forcing carbon credits to be purchased at very expensive rates, they (the government) receive monies for the credit purchases. Now, as the energy companies purchases these credits, they have to find a way to pay for them, correct? So… who really pays for them in the long run? Yea…..

Now, let me think….Hmmmm they pass this down to the energy companies and make them look like the bad guys. Especially when rate hikes would be necessary for them to operate efficiently. That is with maybe diff. technology, more expensive scrubbers, precipitators, or some biomass project. That is good because it lowers emissions, but when the credits mount because they don’t need them, who wins here? Is it the trading companies ….mmmmmm owned by Gore and co. that still benefit? Uh… wait a min. I think I smell something other than sulphur in the air…..Yep… recognize that stench.
- Anonymous
  
  Wheeee! We’ve been Koch-ified!!!
  
  Companies have a choice. They can clean up their act or they can pay someone else to do something offsetting.
  
  The government does not receive money from the credit purchase.
  
  The rest of your post, meaningless drivel.
  
  Fact is, it’s time to stop destroying the planet by extracting carbon and turning it into CO2.
  
  Nice thing is, electricity from wind and solar will be cheaper than electricity from coal. Already are if you allow for the extra we pay in tax dollars and health insurance premiums because we are burning coal.
Michael Scott

That is fitting, since we’ll have to move our standard of living down to those of tropical island natives to meet the unrealistic carbon caps our deal leaders are imposing.
- Anonymous
  
  Wind turbines and solar panels pay for themselves long, long before they quit producing electricity. Once paid off they produce almost free electricity.
  
  We spend $1 billion per day to import oil from foreign countries.
  
  What would our standard of living be like if we paid less for electricity and could drive for about 1/4th as much per mile as we now spend?
  
  What would our economy be like if we were spending that $1 billion a day inside the country rather than shipping it overseas? And what if we were employing Americans to generate all that clean power?