Want to develop the country? Develop a sustainable energy program first!

The valley around the Indus River in Pakistan is one of the steamiest regions on earth. Temperatures teeter regularly in the low 100s. But what should be a solar energy hotbed, is instead an energy wasteland. Only one-third of Pakistanis who inhabit this region have reliable access to electricity. How can any country expect to make social, cultural, and political progress without a well-informed, technological-proficient population?

The World Bank has long hoped to bridge the gap between developing countries’ abundance of natural resources and the discourse keeping them from competing on the global economy. They’ve invested $11.6 million towards gathering data to help guide those developing countries on a sustainable path, but so far – no answers have presented themselves.

While first-world problems like unemployment, healthcare, and gun control rage, many parts of the world are still afflicted by power blackouts and tainted water wells. Simple luxuries we take for granted. So hospitals can’t open. Schools close. Small businesses go bankrupt. Asia and Africa account for roughly two-thirds of the 1.2 billion people currently living ‘off the grid’. These are people who’ve never heard of Facebook or Google!

This outrageous number often scares investors away from developing countries. Instead, they dump their private equity in the U.S. and European markets which, though certainly unpredictable, are much more reliable.

The world’s poorest populations are punished as a result. If temperatures rise by 4 degrees C, 7.2 degrees F by 2090, which according to a recent studied published by the World Bank they’re expected to, then crops across the African continent will burn. Rice paddies in Southeast Asia will drown. People will die and villages will be wiped out.

How do we expect the developing world to develop without any people?

The challenge they face right now involves simple math: fossil fuels are cheaper than green energy alternative. Although the world’s wealthiest countries have donated considerable sums of money to renewable energy programs throughout the third world, there’s simply no way to combat the affordability and availability of fossil fuels.

Because these people have worries other than their carbon footprints. Most don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

That’s why NRGLab is lending a hand to the developing world. By helping them create an independent energy infrastructure, we can begin the healing process.

The future isn’t set in stone. And we’re dead set on making sure it’s greener than today.