How start-ups innovate to transform climate and water crises into opportunities

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up about 95% of all businesses in the Southern Mediterranean region and are considered the driving forces behind economic growth, job creation, and green and inclusive growth.

Entrepreneurs, especially start-ups, still face many challenges when it comes to creating, promoting and managing their businesses. Supporting these entrepreneurs through innovative initiatives and enhancing the ecosystems in which they operate will contribute to their development.

In turn, entrepreneurs will contribute to the achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is in this context that the Next Society Project (TNS) and FEMISE decided to launch this initiative to produce “The Next Society Policy Briefs Series”. This series of Briefs aims to better understand the challenges faced by entrepreneurs (through the prism of entrepreneurs themselves) and to provide tailor-made operational policy recommendations.

These Briefs are based on collaborative work and exchange of knowledge and experience between the researcher(s)/author(s) and the entrepreneur(s), many of whom have benefited from the TNS project, ensuring their relevance and impact.

Energy security and water security, two essential resources for human and economic development, are now more interdependent than ever. The impact of climate change in the South Med region has revealed the need to act quickly and effectively to soften the negative effects and address the many challenges associated with water shortage and inefficient energy consumption.

The pandemic provides a strategic opportunity for countries to reconsider their priorities and in particular to give more space to renewable resources (IEA, 2021). This is particularly relevant in the Mediterranean region, which includes some of the most attractive markets in terms of renewable energy (RECAI – Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index).

The objective of this Policy Brief is to assess the status of the water and energy sectors in the South Med region and to highlight the opportunities in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation, through the example of three start-ups from Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco that have been beneficiaries of THE NEXT SOCIETY project (funded by the European Commission).

The transition to an environmentally and socially sustainable model in the energy and water sectors must benefit from innovative entrepreneurship. This paper analyses the motivations of Mediterranean entrepreneurs to create their start-ups, their innovations, the main challenges they faced and provides recommendations to support innovation and accelerate industrial and technological development in this region.

To discover the full brief, follow this link:

https://www.femise.org/actualites/tns-femise-policy-brief-no-7-transformer-les-crises-de-lenergie-et-de-leau-en-opportunites-les-inventions-creatives-des-start-ups-des-pays-du-sud-de-la-mediterranee/