From his perch as chief administrative officer at CLP Holdings Ltd., one of Asia’s biggest electricity generators, David Simmonds has seen a sea change in how investors engage with the region’s companies on climate risk.

A decade ago, only those with an environmental agenda asked about it. It then evolved to pension funds responding to concerns from their members, spread to sovereign wealth funds and finally — around two years ago — became very much a mainstream issue.

"Climate change went from a topic that might have been one item on an agenda somewhere in a meeting,” Simmonds said, to "probably the first question asked by investors on every presentation.”