Despite growing recognition, the disconnect between sanitation and climate change policy and climate action has resulted in sanitation priorities being poorly reflected in national climate policy frameworks. At the same time, sanitation policies often neglect relevant climate considerations, including adapting sanitation services to climate impacts and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

Growing evidence shows that investments in climate-resilient sanitation yield multiple benefits for climate action, as also detailed in IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. Low-carbon and resilient sanitation services have been shown to contribute to building multidimensional community resilience, reducing socio-environmental vulnerability, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions through strategies such as resource recovery and reuse via biogas production, or off-site composting.

A direct consequence of inadequate incorporation of climate considerations in sanitation policies, and vice versa, is that opportunities for synergies between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 and 13 are missed, while sanitation initiatives receive only a minimal portion of climate finance. The resulting lack of infrastructure and resources for resilient sanitation services curtails adaptation capacity and deepens vulnerability, a point highlighted in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, which underscores the need for broader support to sectors vulnerable to climate impacts.

Building on previous analyses, the authors’ objective is to discuss the extent of integration between sanitation and climate change in national level policies. They provide an update on the analysis of sanitation’s inclusion in the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and also cover the extent to which climate change considerations are included in sanitation plans and policies.

After describing their analysis of country policies from NDCs and where they are progressive or lacking, they highlight other examples of integration strategies and their observed benefits and provide recommendations on how climate-sanitation policy integration can be achieved in practice. In response to the growing calls for integrating sanitation and climate policy, they provide critical insights and recommendations to advance the global implementation of integrated climate-sanitation priorities. Specifically, their findings aim to support ongoing policy processes, such as the upcoming revisions of NDCs and the formulation of national adaptation plans (NAPs), as well as countries’ climate-resilient water, sanitation and health (WASH) initiatives and investments.

Key messages

• Progress is being made to integrate sanitation and climate change in national policy frameworks, although gaps remain. Only 2% of activities in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) address climate action in sanitation systems, while less than half of the 121 countries that responded to the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) survey in 2021–2022 address climate-related risks in their national sanitation policies.
• Growing awareness of climate and sanitation linkages is driving policy integration across countries, with examples presented here from Uganda, Bolivia and Jordan where these linkages are embedded in policies, as well as in countries where recent multistakeholder processes have advanced integrating policy frameworks, such as in Indonesia, Viet Nam, Togo and Malawi.
• Aligning sanitation and climate policies creates an enabling environment for the realization of the human right to sanitation and offers numerous benefits, including enhanced effectiveness of sanitation systems, potential for reduced emissions, improved ecosystem services and increased access to climate finance.