Digital storytelling will decide if the world is ready for Israeli climate tech - opinion

The lesson from that earlier moment remains profoundly relevant today: engineering brilliance is essential, but without effective communication and policy engagement, even the most transformative ideas can struggle to gain traction in the marketplace.

When Israel’s digital-health ecosystem first gained global attention, founders believed that the United States would adopt their technologies as seamlessly as Israel’s centralized HMOs had. They assumed that good science and elegant engineering would command instant interest from hospitals, clinics, payers, and policymakers.

However, the US system is an entirely different universe; fragmented, reimbursement-driven, and dominated by intermediaries, it was also cautious about adopting tools that challenged established workflows. Innovators learned the hard way that they had to guide the market through a deliberate process: describing the unmet medical need, publishing clinical evidence, sharing patient experiences, and aligning with regulatory and reimbursement requirements. Only when they mastered that economic swamp did adoption accelerate.

Israeli climate-tech companies now stand in a similar place of opportunity and risk. They are creating essential tools for a world strained by heat, water scarcity, pollution, infrastructure fragility and extreme weather. However, global adoption does not advance solely based on scientific validation. It moves when decision-makers understand why they need these technologies, who benefits from them, and how they fit into the economic and political realities of their environment, ultimately determining who pays the bill.

These innovations appeal to companies under pressure to move faster, operate more efficiently, and demonstrate environmental responsibility to shareholders, regulators, and consumers.

Even as the Inflation Reduction Act becomes entangled in political uncertainty and loses its initial momentum, corporations continue to pursue climate resilience for reasons directly tied to business continuity. They must avoid climate-related failures, reduce water dependency and protect global supply chains. For these buyers, the value proposition is immediate and measurable.

In this segment, Israeli climate-tech founders have an advantage. Corporate decision-makers understand the concepts of cost, risk, and return. They assess whether technology lowers expenses, prevents system breakdowns, supports sustainability commitments or shields them from regulatory volatility. When Israeli entrepreneurs frame these innovations in these concrete terms, the sales cycle is compressed. The engineering speaks for itself, but the story must speak to the business balance sheet.

The second category of climate innovation tells a different story. These solutions address essential public needs: purifying and conserving water, extinguishing fires before they spread, improving air quality, restoring soil health, and strengthening community resilience. They serve the public good, yet they rely on public budgets, and that changes everything.

Unlike corporations, which can make rapid decisions when technology aligns with their operational priorities, governments and municipalities face a maze of approvals. Environmental agencies, utilities, public works departments, treasury officials, regulators, and elected leaders all play a role in influencing the outcome. Budgets are constrained. Risk aversion is common. Even when technology is urgently needed, adoption often progresses slowly.

This is where Israeli climate tech must adopt a different business strategy. Perfected engineering and science are table stakes. It is a combination of consumer advocacy, societal urgency, and policy alignment. It is the age-old adage that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Decision-makers in the US and EU will act when the public understands what is at stake and when stories illuminate the consequences of inaction. Climate solutions that protect water, soil, forests, and air must be framed not as technology transactions but as commitments to the electorate. They require narrative campaigns that explain how families, farmers, neighborhoods, and entire regions are sustained and benefit. They need partnerships with academics, consumer advocacy groups, environmental NGOs, and civic organizations that translate innovation into a greater good. Engineering excellence remains the foundation, but emotional relevance becomes the catalyst. It is a “go-to-market” mindset before the first sale is made.

Canadian-Israeli climate advocate Nicole Grubner, writing in Medika Life, observed that “Israel’s brilliant climate solutions are still invisible.” Her words capture the central dilemma. The brilliance exists. The visibility does not. In climate tech, visibility determines whether technologies are adopted, financed and replicated. This invisibility is not a failure of innovation. It is a failure of narrative alignment between what Israeli entrepreneurs have built and what global buyers are prepared to understand.

The climate-tech paradox, innovation surging while adoption lags, reflects this gap. Innovation alone does not bridge the gap between what founders create and what decision-makers choose to purchase. That distance narrows only when innovators articulate why the world needs their solutions, how these solutions deliver value, and why the consequences of inaction are far more expensive than immediate investment.

When factories were built in communities, builders were met with a common cry: “Not In My Backyard – NIMBY. Now, the counter cry for solutions must be “Yes In My Backyard” (YIMBY).

Israel has already demonstrated that its innovators can master this progression. When the health-tech sector embraced strategic storytelling, its influence expanded dramatically. Climate tech now needs the same discipline. It must show why water-purification systems prevent health crises and add to municipal spending. It must demonstrate how wildfire-suppression tools safeguard communities and infrastructure. It must illustrate how soil-regeneration technologies protect food stability and reduce carbon dependency. It must be acknowledged that climate innovation is not a luxury; it is a cost-saver, a risk reducer, and a lifeline for strained communities facing backyard problems

Israel has the talent, urgency and resolve to help the world confront its climate challenges. Yet to fulfill that role, its innovators must perfect their engineering, proof points and their storytelling. Advocacy, public policy, and communication bring their solutions out of the lab and into the world. Climate tech is no longer simply an environmental proposition. It is an economic, social, and public health imperative. Israel’s innovators can lead, if they make their story impossible to ignore.