Nearly £43m of the island’s pension pot is directly invested in fossil fuels, with a further £19m invested in precious metals and mining.

Details of the investment in fossil fuels and mining came following a freedom of information request from Castle Rushen High School student Archibald Elliott.

The money is invested from the public service employees pension reserve and the National Insurance investment account to provide an investment return and further boost the pension and NI funds.

The FoI revealed that the island has a total of £42,973,044 in what the Treasury said was ’direct investment in fossil fuel companies’ and a further £19,365,379 invested in commodities, which it classified as ’goods related to precious metals and mining’.

In the 2019/20 Budget, Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan revealed the National Insurance fund stood at £ 861,000,000 and was set to rise to £900m in 2020/21.

However the public service employees pension reserve stood at £76m, down from £110m the previous year and is provisionally expected to fall to £40m in 2020/21.

Archibald told the Manx Independent he is ’disappointed’ the government has invested the funds into fossil fuel businesses.

He added: ’This helps companies such as BP expand their global reach and continue to destroy our environment.

’I hope that in the light of the "Climate Emergency" declaration by the Chief Minister, the Treasury will reconsider their investment portfolio and choose more ethical assets to put our pension funds into.

’This would help environmentally sustainable companies by providing the vital investment that they need and also more importantly our world.’ The amounts invested, while in the millions, only equate to small percentage of the total investment fund. The fossil fuel investment comes to 4.29% and commodities 1.93% .

In response to the FoI, Bill Shimmins MHK, Treasury member and chair of the investment committee, said: ’We do ask our investment managers to take into consideration the environmental impact of the stock that they invest in.

’But we do not advise them on which stocks to pick to make the returns set for them.

’The current investment mandates allow a balance of letting the professional investment managers gain positive returns on government reserves while working within sustainable energy and environmental considerations.

’Government’s investment in fossil fuels represents a very small percentage of the overall portfolio but we will continue to liaise with our investment managers to ensure they do not disregard the targets and objectives that are set out in government’s climate change response.’