When the Senate's new bipartisan climate caucus meets for the first time this week, members will be joined by another group looking to engage more in climate policy discussions on Capitol Hill: industry CEOs.

The choice of guests reflects how the caucus formed. Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, co-founders of the caucus, told the Washington Examiner in a joint interview on Capitol Hill that they initially bonded over their backgrounds in the manufacturing industry and their pragmatic approach to legislating.

It was companies' public push to become greener, led by the once Delaware-headquartered chemical major DuPont, that helped spur the creation of the caucus. Coons said the company told him there was a shift happening in how industry viewed its role in tackling climate change.

Companies were discovering they could improve their bottom line by cutting their environmental impact, but Republicans weren't exactly catching on, the Delaware senator added.

"That made me realize, there's a window here to appeal to Republicans who are grounded in business, who want metrics for an outcome, and who are willing to meet with and hear from not so much advocates as industry," Coons said.

Coons and Braun launched the Senate Climate Solutions Caucus on Oct. 23. The group is the first such bipartisan forum for senators to talk about climate policy, and its creation comes amid a rapidly shifting political landscape on the issue.

The upcoming meeting with CEOs is to "ground-truth" and "get a gut check of are there businesses large and small that agree that there are things we can and should do together," Coons said.

"I'm pretty confident the answer's going to be that there's lots who would like to talk to us," he added.

In the last year, Republican lawmakers who either were once hesitant to talk about climate change or had outright rejected the science have declared a need to address rising greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of climate change.

At least three other Republicans — Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham — are joining Braun on the climate caucus, he said.

Braun said he got a lot of attention from his colleagues when he brought up the nascent caucus at a Republican political retreat a few weekends ago to "take some temperatures" on who might be interested.

The reaction was positive, along the lines of "glad you did it, we need to be in the conversation," Braun recalled. "That's all I wanted to do was be in the conversation."

Coons didn't share which of his Democratic colleagues would be joining the caucus. There's been a lot of interest among Democrats, he said, but he also stressed that he and Braun want to keep the caucus balanced with equal members from both parties.

Some climate policy advocates say the formation of the Senate caucus represents a different sort of turning point in the climate conversation than the creation of its House forerunner. The House Climate Solutions Caucus was formed in 2016 by Florida Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ted Deutch, and it now has 63 members — 22 Republicans and 41 Democrats.

That caucus had initially been comprised of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, too, but its Republican membership took a hit in the 2018 midterm elections.

The House caucus, though, was created during a time when there were no climate change hearings on the Hill and policy discussion on the issue was sparse. "So, the most important dynamic about the House caucus was members declaring an interest in the topic," said Alex Flint, executive director of the Alliance for Market Solutions, a conservative climate group that advocates for a carbon price.

The policy conversation has evolved since then amid expanding public awareness of the issue, dire warnings from international science organizations, rapid changes in clean energy markets, and increasing corporate commitments to cut emissions.

"The declaration of an interest isn't as important," Flint said of the Senate group. "Today, the important thing is moving to a discussion of solutions."

The House caucus needed to have a focus on numbers simply because the nature and size of the chamber means a handful of members can't make a difference, said Ben Pendergrass, senior director of government affairs with the grassroots Citizens' Climate Lobby

A few senators working together, by contrast, can have an "outsized" influence, Pendergrass added. "That will allow the Senate caucus to be smaller but more nimble and potentially more action-oriented.

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