Lead, Climate Strategy China

This is a fixed-term role for 18 months.

The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

The Forum hosts 10 centres for advancing public-private cooperation on a range of global, regional and industry issues. The Forum’s Centre for Climate and Nature (CNC) acts as a system leader for the environment and natural resource security, food security, development finance and sustainable development activities at the Forum. The centre seeks to bring innovation and frontier approaches to help the international system be more agile and equipped to respond to today’s challenges. The Centre has organized its initiatives in three thematic pillars: Net Zero, Nature Positive, and Better Living.

Why are we recruiting?

The CNC Net Zero pillar is looking to recruit a skilled professional to join our team as an ‘Industry Decarbonization Lead for China’, for an 18-month project-based position. The selected candidate will lead the multistakeholder sector efforts towards Industrial Decarbonization globally with a strong focus in China and oversee the development and deployment of the carbon neutrality agenda and initiatives responding to the challenge of reducing GHG emissions in the industrial sectors. This person will ensure coordination across the Forum teams (namely with the Fourm’s China team) and external stakeholders, in alignment with the UN agencies, governmental and industry agenda on the topic of accelerating a sustainable, just transport transition.

The Lead, based in Geneva, will work with existing and new internal and external partners to drive convergence around ambition, commitments, and actions with members of these coalitions and provide strategic guidance and input to a foundational evidence base and related tools to facilitate the transition.

Reporting lines and interactions

The ‘Lead, Industry Decarbonization in China’ will report to the Head, Climate Strategy in the Net-Zero, Climate team and will be based in Geneva. The Lead will work in close collaboration with colleagues in the Global Industry Team, the Centre for Energy and Materials, and within the Centre for Nature and Climate as well as other key initiatives like the First Movers Coalition alongside other topics including mobility decarbonisation, carbon markets, climate finance or value chain decarbonization initiatives, among others.

Primary Responsibilities

Main responsibilities - in collaboration with the broader Forum’s Climate Team, the Lead will focus on the below deliverables and activities:

Content Curation and Development :

Lead and contribute to the production of thought leadership through articles, reports, and other formats, documenting and sharing project outcomes and insights.

Create briefing papers to succinctly communicate key findings from the projects. And identify lessons learned, contributing to the ongoing improvement of projects and workstreams.

Facilitate Community Meetings and Deep Dive Workshops:

Organize, curate and facilitate initiative meetings, including deep dive workshops with industry experts, working group meetings, leadership meetings, and public sessions. And provide forward-looking insights and strategic guidance to the team's projects through these workshops.

Curate, coordinate, and facilitate China Climate Action Roundtables, ensuring active participation from key stakeholders, including business, governments, and civil society. Develop agendas, pre-read materials, invite speakers, and oversee logistics to ensure successful discussions.

Stakeholder & Partnerships Management:

Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders – corporates and ecosystem stakeholders including value chain partners, financial institutions, governments and civil society organisations, working with relevant Business Engagement colleagues, industry teams and heads of centres.

Co-lead projects, produce joint knowledge products, and organize collaborative events with the most relevant organisations in the space.

The successful candidate will be assessed on

Impact: extent to which the planned milestones and overall objectives of the workstreams and coalitions are achieved.

Value delivered: participation in teams delivering Forum activities including project and institutional events. 

Contributions to thought leadership, the refinement of the platform and the industry value proposition, and the initiatives outside own portfolio.

Ability to articulate and foster commitment to a joint vision, strategy and work plan with partners and stakeholders as well as implement engagement strategies, incorporating Forum-specific know-how and project management best practices across the team in the different offices and locations.

Quality, responsiveness, resourcefulness, and overall support of engaged initiatives.

Level of collaboration, internal and external.

Preferred requirements and experience

Broad intellectual background and interests with a master’s degree or equivalent in: engineering, energy, business administration, or environmental sciences; and a proven understanding of global affairs generally, and of China in particular.

Knowledge and experience on industry decarbonization acquired through 7-10 years of professional international experience preferably in the context of China or energy sectors, government and/or international and non-government organizations working in areas such as sustainable transportation, carbon markets, industry decarbonization, renewable energy, or emissions mitigation.

Thorough understanding of the industry decarbonization value chain and the stakeholders involved in China.

Experience with project portfolio management methodologies and tools, including multi-stakeholder management.

Experience fostering collaboration across various stakeholder groups acquired from growing partnerships and alliances, solid understanding of value drivers in partnerships.

Outstanding communication skills in English, both verbal and written; Chinese is not a must, but a plus.

Strong presence and ability to research, analyse, synthesize, and communicate topics to corporate executives and multi-stakeholder audiences.

Excellent time management and coordination abilities and a track record of achieving results through persuasion, negotiation, and indirect influence.

A clear service orientation and strong social influence and leadership; collaboration abilities to work within the team, across Forum teams and with external parties.

Capacity to innovate, apply systems and critical thinking, and meet tight deadlines while delivering to the highest quality standards.

High level of adaptability and flexibility; autonomy and initiative, self-motivation, persistence and results orientation, collaboration, and “can-do” attitude.

Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change