Editor’s Note: This opinion piece is written by Weina Crochet Li,  jury for the Earth Advocate Award at the 2025 Wedu Women’s Leadership Awards, and founder of Sunline Foundation, a family-run philanthropic organisation that focuses on environment, education, and social impact, with the goal of empowering communities toward lasting self-sufficiency. 

Weina also serves as an ESG specialist at Sunline Wealth Management, where she helps shape investment strategies that address systemic environmental and social risks. Drawing on her work across both investing and philanthropy, Weina explores the real-world complexities of integrating climate risk into investment decisions—and reflects on the role women’s leadership plays in shaping resilient, future-focused capital.

Let’s face it, climate change is no longer a future concern. In investment, climate change is a structural risk with immediate implications as it reshapes how global markets work. From floods and droughts to shifting regulations and consumer preferences, climate factors are already influencing investment outcomes. At the same time, capital flows can either accelerate climate progress—or hold it back.

Climate change and sustainable investment

For independent wealth managers, simply plugging in a basic ESG* filter isn’t enough. ESG ratings can be a good jumping-off point, but if we want to really capture climate impact, we need to understand whether a company is exposed to environmental risks, whether it has a realistic transition plan, and whether its business model makes sense in a world where climate policy and resources are rapidly evolving. This is a forward-looking, judgment-based process that draws on internal expertise rather than generic frameworks or surface-level scores. It reflects our belief that managing climate risk isn’t a separate task. It’s embedded in how we define long-term value.

“Capital flows can either help accelerate climate progress—or hold it back.”

A useful example of this approach is looking at the rise of U.S. mega-cap tech companies in global indices. Benchmarks like the MSCI World state that, a small group often referred to as the “Magnificent Seven” (think Microsoft, Amazon, Meta) take up a huge slice of the pie. These firms tend to score well on ESG and are seen as strong growth stories.  Yet, they also face significant climate related challenges not necessarily captured by ESG scores and analyses. Their cloud and AI operations rely on massive data centers, which use a ton of energy and water for cooling—often in regions that are already dealing with water stress or unstable power grids. As environmental regulations tighten and physical risks grow, these issues could limit how fast (and how profitably) these businesses scale. That doesn’t mean steering clear of them altogether—it just means paying attention to risks that a passive index approach might miss.

By utilising a balanced and active strategy, one is able to look beyond headline ESG scores and build portfolios that are more resilient and better aligned with a sustainable transition. That means not only reducing exposure to climate-vulnerable sectors, but also identifying the long-term beneficiaries of climate action and adaptation.

Gender diverse leadership and climate-aware investing

Taking this broader view, across both climate mitigation and adaptation, helps us uncover more resilient and future-ready investments. Amongst our indicators of long-term adaptability at Sunline Foundation is also organisational diversity, including gender diversity, which for us demonstrates better risk awareness and more agile decision making, qualities that are especially valuable in navigating environmental and systemic transitions.

“Gender diversity is an indicator for long-term adaptability as it demonstrates better risk awareness and more agile decision making.”

Through our various partnerships, we have seen how investing in leadership capacity builds adaptive strength from the ground up. These are not just education initiatives; they’re resilience strategies.

At Sunline Foundation, we take what’s called a double materiality approach—considering both how climate risks affect the companies we invest in, and how those companies in turn affect the climate. It’s a two-way lens that helps us think more deeply about what resilience really means. Part of that resilience, we’ve found, comes down to who’s in the room making decisions. Studies have shown that companies with more women in leadership tend to take environmental issues more seriously and manage risk more effectively. That’s not a coincidence. It reflects the broader truth that diverse leadership brings a wider range of perspectives—something we believe is essential in navigating long-term, systemic challenges like climate change.

“We can create investments that don’t just survive a changing world but also shape a better one.”

In the end, integrating climate risk isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a continuous, research-led process of identifying vulnerabilities, uncovering opportunities, and staying ahead of structural change. Integrating climate risk into investment decisions isn’t just a box to tick—it’s about truly understanding the complex, evolving challenges our world faces.  By doing so, we can create investments that don’t just survive a changing world—they help shape a better one.

Learn more about Sunline Foundation
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*ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. It’s a way of evaluating how responsible a company is—not just in terms of profits, but how it treats people and the planet.