In a move bolstering its environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investing credentials, NASDAQ announced today that it is acquiring a majority stake in carbon removal marketplace Puro.earth.
“This investment and strategic partnership with Nasdaq will enable us to realize our mission to support the transformation of the world’s economy to reward carbon negative emissions and help our customers reach their ambitious net-zero goals. So far we have seen the carbon removal industry take small steps, and with Nasdaq involved we have the potential to make much bigger strides”, said Antti Vihavainen, CEO of Puro.earth.
Vihavainen also stressed that the governance of the marketplace remains independent and transparent from its new investor and that is a prerequisite for it to function properly and efficiently going forward. To this end Nasdaq and Puro.earth will be establishing an advisory committee with scientists, industry representatives, as well buyers and sellers on its markets.
Puro.earth also declared it will continue to review the removal methodologies of companies that join the market with the same stringent standards as before. Their CO2 Removal Certificates are used to turn the CO2 sequestration capacity of emission-negative products into tradable assets.
The market for the certificates has been active since May 2019 and NASDAQ’s capabitlities will help it scale on both the demand and supply side.
Carbon removal services demand growing
Demand for carbon removal offsets and other services has been growing in the last several years and NASDAQ seem to have identified not only its image-boosting potential, but also the growing trade volume that could benefit the middleman.
Other approaches to compensating carbon emissions have also been gaining traction, with a company aptly named Compensate, announcing today that they’ve reached a milestone of $2.4 million in payments from clients.
