Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative

The Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative promoting corporate investment in sustainable development. It is a project of the United Nations (UN) co-organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI) and the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

Other key stakeholders include the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). The SSE provides a multi-stakeholder learning platform for stock exchanges, investors, regulators, and companies.^{[citation needed]}

The first meeting of the SSE was opened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York City in 2009. Subsequently, the SSE began holding "Global Dialogues" every two years, starting with the 2010 SSE Global Dialogue in Xiamen, China, which took place as part of the UNCTAD World Investment Forum. The second SSE Global Dialogue was held in 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as part of the Global Compact Corporate Sustainability Forum.

At the SSE 2012 Global Dialogue a new dimension to the Initiative was launched, with the five participating stock exchanges making a voluntary public commitment to sustainability in their markets, thereby becoming an SSE Partner Exchange. Since the event, several other leading exchanges have joined the group of SSE Partner Exchanges. UNCTAD, the UN Global Compact, the PRI and UNEP-FI, as the core organizer of the SSE Initiative, also committed to supporting stock exchanges in this effort.

The SSE initiative invites exchanges globally to become Partner Stock Exchange within the SSE by making a voluntary public commitment to promote improved ESG disclosure and performance among listed companies. In addition, the SSE welcomes participation from securities regulators, investors, companies and other key stakeholders within its Consultative Group. The PRI has an SSE Investor Working Group that has been actively engaged since 2009. The SSE's flagship event is its biennial Global Dialogues and it continues to develop new work streams to address specific stakeholder requests.

On 17 October 2023, the SSE became a partnership member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges.

The Sustainable Stock Exchanges Global Dialogues are held every two years as the SSE initiative's flagship event. They provide a unique, high-level platform to explore how the world's exchanges can work together with investors, regulators and companies to create more sustainable capital markets. They are designed to analyze, promote and foster communication on stock exchanges' sustainability-related activities. They demonstrate the progress of stock exchanges while highlighting the challenges and opportunities ahead. Another core purpose is to facilitate the sharing of experiences that encourage exchanges and their regulators to enhance listing rules and regulatory initiatives to include the disclosure of sustainability strategies by listed companies.

The 2014 Global Dialogue was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 14 October 2014, at the United Nations Palais de Nations. The focus of this event was "Capital Markets for Sustainable Development." It featured over 30 high-level roundtable speakers, consisting of CEOs and Chairmen of Stock Exchanges, investors, companies and standard setters, as well as capital market regulators and policymakers. This event was held as part of the four-day UNCTAD biennial World Investment Forum from October 13 to 17.