It's difficult to effect social change without causing a little disruption along the way, Ray Yoshida believes.
But the Australian Youth Climate Coalition national co-director says he won't be drawn into a critique of Extinction Rebellion's protest methods.
Hundreds of protesters were last week arrested as the transnational climate advocacy group conducted marches and demonstrations - many of which blocked peak-hour city traffic - across Australia.
But Mr Yoshida said his group wouldn't necessarily tread the same path.
"Protests throughout our history have often disrupted traffic - this is nothing new," the 27-year-old Mr Yoshida told AAP.
"If protests weren't inconvenient for some people, especially power holders, then they probably wouldn't have an impact.
"For us, we don't seek to block traffic because we're running different campaigns with other tactics that are more targeted to particular corporations."
The coalition currently has three campaigns on the fly.
It wants to stop Adani, an Indian multinational corporation, building the Carmichael coal mine in Queensland, which the group claims would create four times more carbon pollution each year than the rest of Australia.
It wants to halt Origin fracking in the Northern Territory, claiming 51 per cent of the territory is covered in oil and gas exploration licenses that, if given the green light, would pollute Aboriginal-owned land.
The energy company, set to hold its annual general meeting in Sydney on Wednesday, last week began fracking an exploratory well at Beetaloo Basin, a six-hour drive south of Darwin.
"They need to listen to the community who are saying loud and clear that this coal seam gas project would wreck water, destroy country, destroy culture and that it can't go ahead," Mr Yoshida said.
The youth-run climate group also wants public high schools to repower with clean energy.
It says this would be achieved by creating school energy audits, installing 100-kilowatt solar power systems on every school roof and building partnerships with energy providers.
"What is key is finding the common ground between people and communities," Mr Yoshida said.
"What's really clear is that we all have something at stake and at risk, whether it's people or places we love at risk from climate impact.
"What we need to do is find that common ground, and that is where we work from in order to call for change collectively.
"So yes, they (Extinction Rebellion) may be causing inconvenience, but what we really need is action from our state and federal governments that is in line with science that will actually deal with the problem."
Australian Associated Press
