(Bloomberg) -- House Republican lawmakers held a closed-door strategy session over their approach to climate change on Thursday, as they face intensifying pressure from younger voters to address the environmental threat.

The huddle was spurred by a recognition among some Republican leaders that the party has ceded the debate to Democrats.

“There’s been a lot of credibility given to some really crazy and dangerous and irresponsible ideas, and we’ve got to make sure that we are working to inform and educate the public about the dangers of some of these policies,” Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana, the top Republican on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, said in an interview.

Graves addressed his colleagues at the session, along with Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The meeting came amid polling showing young Americans want politicians to tackle climate change and warnings from GOP strategists that if Republicans don’t address the issue, they could alienate an entire generation of voters.

It remains to be seen if Republicans can make any change in a party where many of its politicians -- including President Donald Trump -- have denied that there are human factors behind climate change.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy convened the special policy conference discussion, the first held this year. It is set to be followed by similar gatherings to discuss privacy, technology and other issues that call out for deeper caucus-wide conversations. The session could help inform a later Republican climate proposal built around advancing green innovation, carbon-capture technology and nuclear power.

McCarthy said Republicans are identifying “realistic policies” that can build on U.S. progress in lowering emissions “without decimating our own communities and dismantling our economic system as we know it.”

Democrats are preparing to advance climate change legislation in the House this spring, potentially forcing some Republicans to take tough votes on the issue before the November elections. The move seeks to exploit Republican discord on the topic, amid growing public alarm over global warming and as ambitious proposals for addressing it, such as the Green New Deal, shift the debate over what should be done.

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So far, congressional Republicans have promoted accelerating innovation and green technology -- and the meeting was intended to help them convince the public that their proposals would do more to curb greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Graves said Republicans can offer solutions to climate change that not only do a better job reducing greenhouse gas emissions globally but do so without abandoning traditional conservative values of limited government, low taxes and free markets.

Republicans say that policies put forth by Democratic lawmakers and presidential candidates that would throttle fossil fuel development in the U.S. wouldn’t propel economically viable low- and zero-emission technology.

Instead, they argue, the U.S. needs to propel innovative solutions that are attractive for export and can stifle emissions from China and developing countries.

“Climate change is real. The need to protect the environment is real. The need to foster a strong U.S. economy and grow American jobs is real,” Walden said by email. “So, let’s focus on public policy grounded in innovation, conservation and preparation.”

Some environmentalists remained skeptical.

“Congressional Republicans and Donald Trump just blocked a package of clean energy tax credits from being included in the year-end tax and budget deal,” said Sierra Club Global Climate Policy Director John Coequyt. “That was a serious and limited solution they failed to support, but they are suddenly serious a few weeks later after decades of climate denial?”

Graves stressed that quashing fossil fuel development in the U.S. could increase greenhouse gases globally, by making the world more reliant on natural gas from Europe and Russia that generate more emissions.

“One of the problems where Democrats have misfired is they’ve deemed oil and gas the enemy when the reality is it is emissions you need to be focusing on,” Graves said. Lawmakers need to be “looking at innovative solutions that have been applied in the United States -- not these conceptual pipe dreams.”

(Updates with meeting details and Sierra Club comment from second paragraph)

To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Washington at jdlouhy1@bloomberg.net;Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman

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