The Uniting Church will cut its investments in mining companies because of its concerns about climate change.

In a meeting held in Sydney on Tuesday, 400 synod council members from the Uniting Church in NSW and the ACT voted unanimously to divest from companies engaged in fossil fuel extraction and place them on its `excluded stock list'.

The synod said investments in mining companies contradicted its ethical investment principles, which require it to shun companies involved in `substantially changing the environment'.

Paddington Uniting Church mission development manager, Justin Whelan, said the church wanted to express its concerns about climate change through more than just words.

"This is the church taking direct action and showing that it's not willing to profit from destroying the earth," he told AAP on Tuesday.

"This is us acting as a way of demonstrating the urgency of our situation."

Mr Whelan said the church was concerned about the expansion of mining in NSW, particularly coal and coal seam gas, threatening agricultural land, human health and biodiversity.

He said the state and federal governments were not doing enough on climate change and called on the O'Farrell government to extend "no-go zones" from residential areas to farmland, forests and aquifers in northwest NSW.

Mr Whelan said it was hoped the resolution would send a "strong signal" to mining companies and the government.

"When we divested from Woolworths because of our concerns about poker machines, they were very concerned to hear we were divesting.

"We do know that companies pay attention when they hear we are divesting from them."

The church is drawing up a `hit list' of companies which it will withdraw from and will instead direct its investments into renewable energy companies.


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