The petition was backed by former Brexit Party MEP Lance Forman and conservative commentator Darren Grimes.

Santander, Boots, BMW and Centrica also feature among the top 20 UK pension plans without carbon neutral goals.

Blue Sky Strategy, run by anti-BBC campaigner Rebecca Ryan, was listed on the website of a group whose founder calls climate change a “con”.

Analysis last year by DeSmog found numerous ties between directors of the British bank and polluting companies.

Alan McCormick has tweeted articles questioning climate science and chairs a foundation that has received funding from fossil fuel interests.

Boris Johnson and Gautam Adani also met last year ahead of the COP26 climate summit, at which the UK pushed for a global phase-out of coal-fired power.

Five major outlets quoted FairFuelUK lobbyist Howard Cox, who opposes net zero policies and rejects climate science.

The tabloid failed to mention that Net Zero Watch, which last week called for renewables to be ‘wound down’ completely, was behind the survey.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas has called the Net Zero Watch report "an incoherent jumble of climate denialism, fake news and truth-twisting".

The claims stem from an unsubstantiated remark made in 2014 by the then NATO general secretary, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, that Russia had “actively engaged” with environmental groups opposing shale gas “to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas”.