Social entrepreneurship: key element in the transformation from fossil to hydrogen energy economies

Abstract

The energy transition and the environmental impacts resulting from the use of fossil fuels are a reality materialized in different agreements and commitments by all economies worldwide; however, to achieve the goals and sustainable development, new forms of innovation are required to create space for new business models with significant social impacts, in such a way that economic, social, and environmental welfare is not sacrificed. The objective of the current study is to identify how social entrepreneurship enables the energy transition from fossil fuel-based economies to the creation of hydrogen-based economies. The research followed a descriptive qualitative methodology. Within the main results it was found that social entrepreneurship, in addition to fostering spaces for new business models, promotes the integration of actors and socioeconomic agents, which, applied to the different sectors to be decarbonized, would encourage investment oriented towards a fundamental change that leads to a zero-emission society and to the different collateral social improvements.