The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the registration of the first U.S. “green” stock exchange—Green Impact Exchange (GIX)—with trading to begin in 2026.

According to their website, GIX was launched to “enable investors to be confident that companies are delivering on their [sustainability] promises, and in turn, help these companies to stand out from the crowd and attract outsized dollars from this new investor base.”

To qualify for dual listing on GIX, companies will be required to adhere to GIX’s Green Governance Standards, which prioritize “sustainable governance, meaningful disclosures and accountability.”

GIX will initially be a dual listing venue, meaning for companies already listed on another exchange. However, in the future, the exchange plans to offer companies the option to use GIX as their primary listing venue for ordinary equity shares and/or other classes of equity securities, according to their website.

The SEC’s approval of a “green” exchange may come as a surprise to some, particularly in light of the agency’s recent decision to no longer defend its climate-risk disclosure rule in court. Some have suggested that the approval could be more representative of the incoming agency’s goal of promoting new market offerings than its alignment with GIX's sustainability goals.