British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assured today that his government is not slowing down “at all” its efforts to fight climate change, the day after announcing the postponement of some important measures.

After a hastily organized press conference yesterday, Wednesday, during which he mainly announced the postponement for five years, from 2030 to 2035, of the ban on the sale of new thermal cars (including those powered by petrol and diesel) in Britain, the prime minister was forced to defend his measures, which were denounced as electioneering and condemned in financial circles and even in his own Conservative camp.

“We will not slow down at all in our efforts to fight climate change,” he said Sunak on the BBC Radio Networknoting that the UK is “decarbonising faster than any other major G7 economy”.

Asked about the criticism leveled by Climate Change Commission director-general Chris Stark, who earlier on the same radio station described as “wishful thinking” the belief that Britain would be able to meet its carbon neutrality target in 2050 with measures announced, Rishi Sunak said with conviction.

Previous governments set these targets to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century “without having an honest conversation with the country about what needs to be done to achieve them,” he explained.

The government “bears the responsibility to act in such a way that we have the measures and proposals that will enable us to fulfill all our international and national obligations, to which we remain committed and have full confidence” that “we will fulfill them”, he continued Rishi Sunak.

The Tory government leader, who cited Margaret Thatcher as saying he does not see it as appropriate to “go after the big headlines” to “be popular in the short term”, published an article in The Sun tabloid to defend his remarks.

Although strongly criticized by the automotive sector, they were rather favorably received by the British, mainly conservative, press.