I don't even think you need "a lot of sacrifice" to stop emitting so much carbon. The EPA estimates that energy efficiency could cut emissions by up to 20%.
The trick is that most energy inefficient buildings and appliances are used by poor people who can't afford to upgrade or maintain to the latest and greatest standards, and massive funding for poor people is a giant lightning rod at least in the US. I know that in a previous house my utility was literally paying me to replace my fridge and air conditioner to reduce peak power demand, but I have no idea how widespread such programs are.
The problem with efficiency is that it's usually not tied to reduction. We need people to have more efficient buildings and to heat and cool them less. We need LED lighting with no more lighting. So, https://www.treehugger.com/energy-efficiency/are-we-using-le...
Put simply: INDUCED DEMAND
Just like roads or computer hardware (every improvement in hardware can get eaten up by people no longer caring about optimizing software efficiency or modest file sizes: nobody needs their cute family videos to be 4k HD etc)… we can easily use up ALL the gains if we are let to just do that.
We use more efficient building technology to support homes being larger and more luxurious than we need. Defeats the whole purpose.
We need to internalize the costs. Heavy taxes on the source of pollution rather than subsidizing the clean-up or the use.
If energy gets MUCH MUCH more expensive, people WILL upgrade to efficient tech and keep minimizing their use of it.
The trick is that most energy inefficient buildings and appliances are used by poor people who can't afford to upgrade or maintain to the latest and greatest standards, and massive funding for poor people is a giant lightning rod at least in the US. I know that in a previous house my utility was literally paying me to replace my fridge and air conditioner to reduce peak power demand, but I have no idea how widespread such programs are.