Boris Johnson is set to launch an "energy supply strategy" for Britain in the coming days to reduce the UK's reliance on Russian gas.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Mr Johnson admitted he "can't shut off" our reliance on "Russian gas overnight".
But Mr Johnson believes the UK can "go faster" to reduce dependency on Vladimir Putin's resources in comparison to other Western countries.
Last month, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng tweeted, Britain is "not reliant on Russian gas, unlike Europe".
Today the PM said: “We need to increase our self-reliance.
"There are going to be impacts but I think it is the right thing to do. It is completely the right thing to do to move away from Russian hydrocarbons but we have to do it step by by step.
“We have got to make sure we have substitute supply. One of the things we are looking at is the possibility of using more of our own hydrocarbons."
“That doesn’t mean we are in any way abandoning our commitment to reducing CO2 but we have got to reflect the reality that there is a crunch on at the moment."
Mr Johnson has been considering delaying Britain's Net Zero targets to help tackle the West’s dependence on Russian gas supplies, according to reports.
The PM is said to want Western countries, particularly the US and Canada, to increase gas production, during the transition to nuclear and renewable energy sources.
Last week, in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica and the German paper Die Welt he said: “We need a collective European strategy and a western strategy to diversify away from this dependence."
And he is facing intensifying pressure to rethink the government’s 2050 net-zero target from a small but powerful group of Tory MPs and peers.
Members of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) have called on Mr Johnson to secure Britain’s energy independence and reverse plans to end fracking.
"There are different dependencies in different countries. We have to be mindful of that. We can't close down the use of oil and gas overnight even from Russia," Mr Johnson told reporters at the Downing Street press conference.
"What we need do need to make sure we're moving in the same direction and we all share the same assumptions and we accelerate that move. That is what you're gonna see. You've heard that from leaders around the world.
"Actually, I've seen no inconsistency by the way, in moving away the dependency on Russian hydrocarbons, moving away the dependency on hydrocarbons altogether. You can see how this will encourage the world to go for green solutions where ever possible."
Dutch PM Mr Rutte said it's a "painful reality" that Western nations are still "very dependent" on Russian gas and oil and it will have "enormous ramifications" around the world.
The Government's target to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2050 was enshrined in law on June 2019.
But officials only unveiled how they would meet this goal in October 2021.
On Sunday Nigel Farage, former Ukip leader, announced his plans to launch a political movement to campaign for a referendum on the net-zero policy.
