This assumes that current US and EU living standards are inherently better than other ways of living. But what if you could live sustainably and maintain a higher quality of living? Why not use tech like solar panels, geothermal heating/cooling, and more to help those countries "skip over" the dirty, coal-burning period of industrialization and invent something better (and more sustainable)?

We tend to assume that living in the US, driving around a polluting car, buying up polluting gadgets, throwing away tons of plastic per person, burning propane and natural gas and oil for heating, watering your lawn in the desert, etc. are all... the best way to live. But you could supply small towns in Africa with solar panels and let them figure out a better way, no? And they have certain advantages -- like distributed small farms, walkable towns, no "technical debt" of inefficient gadgets and gizmos in their houses -- that put them in a much better position than countries like the USA.

Take the massive US military budget and spend it on this instead.