McCarthy issued one stark warning for his party. He said younger voters are worried about climate change and cautioned that Republicans were risking their viability in elections over the long term by ignoring this critical issue.

Most major Republican leaders have been reluctant to address climate change. Some Republicans have even referred to fears about the warming of the Earth as a hoax. But McCarthy said that voters in their late 20s are the largest demographic age group in the United States and said Republicans could permanently lose this voting bloc absent offering a climate change agenda.

“We need to have an open discussion about, what should the party look like 20 years from now, and we should be a little nervous,” McCarthy said. “We have to do something different than we’ve done.”

To that end, McCarthy said House Republicans are planning to introduce a series of bills addressing climate change. He said the legislation would seek to use conservative, free-market principles to protect the environment, rejecting Democratic proposals such as Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.

“Let’s have that debate instead of everybody saying we’re just deniers,” McCarthy said.