STEP 1:
Explore the Problem Landscape

As a climate and energy entrepreneur, the first step of your journey is to understand the universe of potential climate and energy problems, so that you can then zoom into a more bite-sized problem that you can tackle through entrepreneurship. The goal is to shift your focus from overwhelming societal issues (like rising greenhouse gases or extreme weather events) to specific, solvable problems that are faced by individual consumers, businesses, and institutions. This process helps you go from a broad understanding (e.g. “climate change is bad”) to a more narrow starting point for a new venture (e.g. “how can I reduce methane leaks in natural gas pipelines?”).

Why is this the beginning of the DE4CEV framework? Climate change is a massive problem, and you need a structured approach to avoid getting lost or discouraged. This step gives you the tools to analyze the issues systematically, breaking them down into manageable pieces called problem segments. For each problem segment, you will estimate the Climate Total Addressable Market (Climate TAM), which is a rough assessment of the maximum potential impact on the climate if the problem were to be solved.

By the end of this step, you should have a clear understanding of the problem you aim to solve and why it matters.