I think a large part of the problem is the crass level of hypocrisy involved here. We look to leaders to be well... leaders. To paraphrase others, it's difficult to think of climate as a problem when the people who are telling us it's a problem aren't behaving as such. It's as if they're asking the rest of us to make all the sacrifices when they make few to none.
As I've said elsewhere, I've personally made some changes and tried to reduce waste and I do think that AGW seems likely though the science appears far from certain.
If global warming is such a big problem as claimed then our collective actions will make a difference. Thinking it doesn't would be like startups not pinching pennies and unnecessarily increasing the burn rate with an underlying assumption of success.
Collective. Not a buncha' people meeting once. Those people meet to (hopefully) negoiate how to build useful incentives for a collective change in behaviour. And that's (incentives) what's the important thing. Not symbolic fluff.
As I've said elsewhere, I've personally made some changes and tried to reduce waste and I do think that AGW seems likely though the science appears far from certain.