There comes a point when volatility stops feeling exceptional and begins to feel like the condition of life itself. In India, I believe that point has already arrived. Heatwaves scorch cities months before summer and claim lives, floods displace entire communities, and erratic monsoons veer unpredictably between drought and deluge, leaving farmers destitute. The human toll is immense, but climate volatility does not stop there. It reverberates through markets, visible in broken supply chains, commodity price fluctuations, and the erosion of long-term wealth preservation.

The recognition of the severity of climate change is showing up in investment patterns. At Waterfield, our ‘Legacy to Leverage 2025’ report with the Impact Investors Council shows that climate-tech was the most active sector for Indian high-net-worth families: 35 percent of deals by volume and 28 percent by value between 2021 and 2024 were in this space. Focus areas include sustainable mobility, clean energy, and resilience technologies. This mirrors global trends: PwC reports that climate-tech raised more than $40 billion in 2023 even amid a venture downturn, and BloombergNEF reports $1.8 trillion invested in clean energy in 2023.

While India is far from a fringe player, interest has yet to mature into conviction. Most Indian family office deals remain concentrated at the seed stage, often treated as “test bets” rather than core allocations. Of 316 families in the impact space in 2021, only 64 remained active in 2024. This suggests that climate finance has yet to be institutionalized as a long-term strategy.

There are three structural frictions.

First, technological immaturity: sectors such as green hydrogen and carbon capture remain pre-commercial, requiring patient, risk-tolerant capital. Second, policy uncertainty: despite ambitious renewable energy targets, frameworks for carbon pricing, renewable market design, and climate finance regulation remain incomplete. Third, liquidity risk: secondary markets are shallow, making exits uncertain. These conditions reinforce a cautious, episodic engagement.

Nonetheless, I see frontier opportunities where family capital can be catalytic. Blended finance, which remains virtually absent among Indian families, has unlocked markets globally by using concessional capital to de-risk private flows. Another untapped space is nature-based solutions and climate adaptation, where the United Nations estimates a $194 billion annual shortfall. And technology-first interventions, from distributed renewables to climate-data platforms, already account for 14 percent of family-backed deals.

India’s position is unique. It is simultaneously one of the most climate-vulnerable nations and yet, it is projected to account for more than a quarter of global energy demand growth over the next two decades. Policy tailwinds like the Production Linked Incentive schemes and the National Green Hydrogen Mission make the country a natural laboratory for climate innovation.

Indian family offices must move from episodic experiments to structured leadership. Formal tools like Impact Investment Policy Statements when investment portfolios are being crafted can clarify priorities and risk appetite. Catalytic instruments like first-loss guarantees or outcome-based funding can de-risk capital and crowd in institutional investors.

Indeed, volatility is a disruption, but we can harness it to drive structural change. Climate change shapes portfolio outcomes, lives, and ecosystems, and consequently, the cost of inaction will be measured in both the capital that is lost and the communities that are broken. We can either wait to be pushed by crisis, or we can act now before the window closes.