“Climate change is primarily a water crisis.
We feel its impacts through worsening floods, rising sea levels, shrinking ice fields, wildfires and droughts.”
-- UN Water[1]Climate finance for water and sanitation
Climate change is jeopardising the achievement of SDG 6 and the global goal for water and sanitation. Growing water scarcity, the increased likelihood of floodings of water and sanitation infrastructure can contaminate water supplies and damage infrastructure. More salt water intrusion from rising sea levels pollutes sweet water aquifers.
For over two decades, Aqua for All has committed to fund and support initiatives aiming at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. This has been a learning curve that has shaped how we will mainstream climate action throughout our programmes and our organisation by:
- Taking measures to reduce our operations footprint.
- Identifying the climate risks to which our programmes may be exposed.
- Managing and mitigating identified climate risks while helping communities become more resilient through water and sanitation services.
- Supporting water and sanitation enterprises to reduce emissions from their operations.
- Including GHG emissions in the screening process of new investments.
- Providing support to financial institutions partnering with Aqua for All to better understand the exposure of their water and sanitation portfolios to climate risks, and to identify how to manage and mitigate these risks.
[1] https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-and-climate-change