Millennials are increasingly interested in sustainable investing and in many cases are instilling their social and environmental values in their parents.

The oil and gas business has a strong future despite substantial divestment by the New Zealand Super Fund, the lead industry body says.

The $35 billion fund has substantially or completely withdrawn from 300 companies, including some of the world's biggest oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Statoil, calling them risky investments.

The move, affecting the fund's $14bn passive equity portfolio, involved about $950 million in shares.

It said it feared its value might be at risk if too much money was tied up in oil and gas.

The fund's chief investment officer, Matt Whineray, said there was a significant risk, which had not been factored into the market. The worry was that climate change jitters would dry up economic returns from oil and gas companies and cause their share prices to shrink over time.

The Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said that was just one opinion, however, and other investors thought oil and gas still had bright prospects.

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has sold shares in some of the world's biggest companies to reduce exposure to firms emitting greenhouse gases.

The fund is quitting or reducing holdings in 300 firms as part of its "carbon transition". They include Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Statoil and local firms New Zealand Oil & Gas and Genesis Energy.

The firms are part of the Super Fund's huge passive investment portfolio - making up two thirds of the fund's total investments - and similar principles will be applied now to active investments.

Pressure has mounted on foundations linked to the University of Auckland to pull their money from fossil fuel companies, with 240 university staff signing an open letter backing the shift.

The letter - signed by prominent faculty members including Dame Anne Salmond, Professor Jane Kelsey, Dr Niki Harre and Professor Peter Adams - comes two weeks after 13 students staged a 12-hour sit-in at Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon's wing in the university's historic clock tower.

A relatively small number of fossil fuel producers and their investors could hold the key to tackling climate change.

Just 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988, according to a new report.

If responsible investment includes investing in our means of transport (and I suggest that it does), then you will want to hear this interview.

Kathryn Ryan talks with Stanford University lecturer Tony Seba who has co-authored a report predicting the impact of driver-less cars. He says within 10 years of regulatory approval, 95% of passenger miles traveled in the United States will be in autonomous electric vehicles.

Yesterday, over 100 medical students from the Auckland University Medical Students Association (AUMSA) rallied to call on the University of Auckland to cease investments in coal, oil, and gas companies, to protect public health and reduce the impacts of climate change.

If implemented, the president's policies could have a profound effect on issues that resonate with a growing number of investors: the environment, social issues and corporate governance.

It's too soon to tell what effect the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency will have on impact investing. But if implemented, Mr. Trump's policies could have a profound effect on issues near and dear to a growing number of investors: the environment, social issues and corporate governance.

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund will start getting rid of its investments in fossil fuel companies, it has announced.

Green MP Barry Coates was a winner at this year's Sustainable Business Awards. He tells Wallace Chapman that sustainability is dramatically changing the nature of the New Zealand business sector, but ...