Do the young have the will to make climate change sacrifices?

On Monday, the biggest youth climate change conference Australia has ever seen wound up in Sydney.

The likes of Al Gore lined up to inspire thousands of young people to discover their inner Captain Planets and solve the climate crisis.

The sentiment was noble but the focus unclear. Young people don't need to be persuaded of the climate crisis. Poll any group of people, young or old, and a majority will talk of their passion to live in a greener world.

But ask that same group how much they drive, or fly, or how many children they intend to have and you'll be amazed.

It simply doesn't add up.

The reality is that there is a dangerous and underlying tension between hopes and reality when it comes to young people and climate change.

Left unchanged it will bring our urgent campaigns for salvation crashing down in a pile of double standards and hypocrisy. A little-known report released last year by London company TNS Global Market Research Specialists highlighted this dichotomy.

Eight thousand young people from 27 countries took part in the survey. While an overwhelming majority thought changes to the environment were a result of human behaviour, economic ambitions remained unchecked and most were not willing to make the hard sacrifices necessary to avert dangerous changes to our climate.

The report shows it is almost as if young people advocate change but really want to hang on to the status quo.

To escape the guilt, we hide behind flowery statements and campaigns like Earth Hour, seemingly doing "our bit" for the environment by turning our lights off once a year, or carrying around chic recyclable bags. Gosh, can't you see how "green" we are?

In order to bring about real change my generation needs to "walk the talk" when it comes to climate change. Reconciling our economic and lifestyle ambitions with our passions for the environment would be the place to start.

Overcoming this inertia will be much harder than any global negotiation taking place. But the consequences are too dire and the time frame too urgent not to do so.

Domestic political pressure will be the key to bringing about the necessary national resolve to deliver a viable solution at Copenhagen in December.

Young people are the natural agents to apply that political pressure.

Given the current pace of climate negotiations, we are the ones most likely to spend our retirements either under water or on fire.

Indeed, the current Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme contains more exemptions than it does regulations.

The challenge will be for us to take our good intentions and channel them into more than just flowery rhetoric.

The challenge will be for us to actually make the hard sacrifices.

Young people are the most powerful catalyst for change in society. But only when they want to be.

Change is not always forthcoming even from our own ranks. The fact that there are 14 groups with more than five million members opposing the new Facebook layout shows this.

Gandhi said "you must be the change you wish to see in the world". The uncomfortable message is that if you are not part of the solution in every choice you make, you are part of the problem.

But before I'm accused of pigeon-holing a movement, let me acknowledge that any cross-section of society has a diversity of views and behaviour.

But the question remains: collectively, do young people really have the necessary will to be the change they want to see when it comes to climate change? Or do we just say we do?

We have a long path ahead of us. A path that is crucially important.

It is about time my generation stopped simply "talking the talk" and started "walking the talk" when it comes to climate change. Only then can we really hope to make a difference.