Invest for good 

In the first class of semester when I have a new bunch of university students studying business ethics, we always start with a quick task. I ask them which companies they think are “bad”. I then pick one, what we might call the worst of the worst. It’s usually Big Tobacco. Then we see what it would take to work for them.

As I raise the stakes, usually by offering a bigger and bigger salary, hands begin to rise indicating willingness. By $500,000 I can have a third of the class, with others seriously considering bending their own principles. But there are some who just won’t do it, ever. Not even if the salary is in the millions with a car thrown in.

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The $35 billion fund has substantially or completely withdrawn from 300 companies, including some of the world's biggest oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Statoil, calling them risky investments.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