The China Factor in Europe’s Competitiveness and Net Zero Transition

The China Factor in Europe’s Competitiveness and Net Zero Transition

📅 18 September 2026 | 08:00 – 09:30 CEST | Virtual
🌏 2:00 – 3:30 PM HKT for Hong Kong participants

Boards Impact Forum and Climate Governance Initiative Hong Kong Chapter are pleased to host this joint webinar exploring the strategic implications of China’s development for European boards.

China’s sustainability transformation is reshaping the global climate transition. Its scale in electric vehicles, batteries, solar, urban infrastructure, and green industrial development is changing technology cost curves, supply chains, and competitive dynamics for companies around the world. But this is far more than a sustainability story. China’s cleantech leadership is simultaneously a digital transformation, a geopolitical and sovereignty issue, and a competitive strategy challenge.

For European boards, this creates a complex strategic agenda: China is a source of innovation, a critical supplier, a formidable competitor, a major market, and a growing regulatory and geopolitical consideration. Yet many boards struggle to integrate these perspectives into a coherent strategic oversight approach. The risks and opportunities span supply chain resilience, competitive positioning, innovation strategy, partnerships, and regulatory exposure—all requiring board-level integration.

This webinar brings together board directors and experts from Europe and Asia to explore what boards need to understand about the interconnection between sustainability, digital disruption, and geopolitical risk in China’s development—and how boards can oversee strategy, resilience, and partnerships in this new landscape.

The discussion will address how supervisory boards can:

• Understand China’s long-term development strategy and its implications for global supply chains, technology competition, and competitive advantage
• Integrate sustainability, digital transformation, and geopolitical risk into a coherent board-level oversight approach
• Assess implications for their organization’s supply chains, partnerships, innovation strategy, and market positioning
• Strengthen board-level foresight and risk oversight in an interconnected global economy
• Build resilience and competitive advantage in an era of technological disruption and geopolitical fragmentation

Insights gathered will contribute to Boards Impact Forum’s ongoing research on how boards can strengthen their strategic oversight capabilities in the face of interconnected global transformations.

As with all Boards Impact Forum sessions, participation is reserved for board directors and those holding a board mandate, ensuring a frank and focused peer-level exchange.

Speakers

Dr. Lola Woetzel, Founder and Managing Partner, Global6

Dr. Woetzel is a globally recognized expert on China’s economic and urban development, and the implications of China’s sustainability and digital transformation for global strategy and competitiveness. She is Visiting Professor of Global China Studies and Business at New York University in Shanghai, and Senior Partner Emerita of McKinsey & Company, where she served as Director of the McKinsey Global Institute. As one of McKinsey’s leaders in developing its Asia practice, she opened the Shanghai office in 1995 and has been resident there since. She has also worked in the Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, and Zurich offices. Dr. Woetzel founded McKinsey’s Cities Special Initiative and has led extensive research on China, Asia, and global economic and business trends. She has deep expertise in energy, mining, housing, infrastructure, and urban development—industries at the heart of China’s transformation. She is fluent in Chinese, English, Spanish, and German.

Moderation by Liselotte Engstam — Chair, Boards Impact Forum — Spencer Liu — Operations Director, Climate Governance Initiative Hong Kong Chapter — and Fernanda Torre — Operations Director, Boards Impact Forum.

This webinar is free and open to board directors with an active board mandate. By reserving participation for those with active supervisory or non-executive board responsibilities, we create a safe, confidential space where directors can engage in candid peer-to-peer dialogue on strategic challenges. This ensures discussions remain focused at board level and allows participants to share perspectives and concerns openly, knowing the conversation is grounded in shared board experience and accountability.

To register, please confirm your active board mandate.