The Anglican Diocese of Wellington has voted to remove all of its investments in companies which extract or produce fossil fuels.

The decision came at a meeting of delegates in Palmerston North this weekend and follows a similar decision by the Anglican synod in Auckland.

The Wellington diocese says the church is concerned about the effect of carbon emissions on climate change and also about the long term health of investments in the fossil fuel industry.

It says the share holdings will be divested within the next two years.

Reverend Dr Tim McKenzie proposed the decision and told delegates a low-carbon economy cannot be created at once and small significant steps like this decision are needed.

"I don't think we can afford to wait to see if the worst case scenarios about climate change turn out to be true, this is a small step that we can take now towards a low carbon economy and therefore we should take it now before the climate situation gets really drastic."