Have your say: Updated Water Infrastructure Criteria open for public consultation

Many of climate change’s most immediate effects are now manifesting through water. In 2025 alone, severe flooding across parts of Asia disrupted cities and displaced communities, while prolonged drought in southern Europe strained reservoirs and agricultural production. In Latin America, intense rainfall once again tested urban drainage systems. Across entire regions, climate change is reshaping the hydrological cycle, intensifying both water scarcity and water excess. 

At the same time, water systems are among the most powerful tools available to reduce climate vulnerability. Drinking water infrastructure, wastewater treatment, flood protections and nature-based solutions are not just simply essential services. They need to be designed for future climate conditions and include long-term resilient assets capable of protecting communities, safeguarding ecosystems and supporting economic stability in an increasingly volatile climate. 

To help ensure capital is directed towards water infrastructure that can withstand these growing risks, Climate Bonds is launching a public consultation on the updated Water Infrastructure Criteria under the Climate Bonds Standard, with feedback invited until 8 April 2026. 

 
Key updates to the Water Infrastructure Criteria

The revised Criteria strengthen and operationalise resilience requirements within the water sector, translating the Climate Bonds Resilience Taxonomy (CBRT) into practical, sector-specific guidance. Key updates include: 

• Operationalising the Climate Bonds Resilience Taxonomy (CBRT) 
  The updated Criteria embed the CBRT framework within water infrastructure, clarifying what constitutes a substantial contribution to climate resilience in this sector.
• Mandatory climate vulnerability assessment for all assets 
  All water infrastructure assets must demonstrate how climate risks have been assessed and addressed through structured adaptation planning.
• Enhanced Adaptation & Resilience (A&R) Scorecard 
  A strengthened evaluation framework covering water allocation and governance, technical and eco-hydrological diagnostics, nature-based solutions, desalination-specific risks, and the robustness of adaptation planning.
• Stronger safeguards against maladaptation 
  Clearer requirements to ensure that risk-reduction measures in one area do not increase vulnerability elsewhere in the system. The scorecard is designed in a way such that maladaptation  is addressed throughout the scorecard.  
• Alignment with mitigation objectives 
  Clarified expectations around emissions, energy use, including desalination, and safeguards against fossil fuel lock-in to ensure resilience investments support broader decarbonisation goals.
• Recognition of water as a cross-sector climate risk 
  Where freshwater availability or water-related risks are material to performance, investments in other sectors may need to apply water resilience requirements.
• Inclusion of methane measures in the wastewater treatment segment Within the water infrastructure value chain, wastewater collection and treatment represent the primary sources of methane emissions. Due to the high organic load present in these activities, they constitute the highest methane emissions from the water sector. Wastewater collection and treatment related assets need to prove they have done no significant harm to mitigation, including methane measures where applicable.  

 
What this means for the market 

Water infrastructure remains under-represented in labelled bond markets relative to its scale and importance. At the same time, physical climate risks are accelerating – and investors are demanding clearer, more comparable definitions of A&R impact. 

By strengthening and operationalising resilience requirements within the Water Infrastructure Criteria, Climate Bonds aims to: 

• Increase investor confidence that Certified bonds related to water deliver credible, measurable resilience outcomes.
• Provide issuers with clearer guidance to structure robust, resilience-aligned transactions
• Support the expansion of A&R labelled bond pipelines 

Since 2016, more than 60 Climate Bonds Certified water infrastructure bonds have been issued under the existing Criteria, representing over USD 8 billion in certified issuance across six continents. The updated framework builds on this track record, positioning resilient water infrastructure as a core, investable climate solution. 
 

Have your say 

Public consultation is a core part of Climate Bonds’ criteria development process, ensuring that updated frameworks are both science-based and practical for the market. 

We invite investors, issuers, utilities, policymakers, technical experts and civil society organisations to review the draft updated Water Infrastructure Criteria and provide feedback. The consultation is open from 13 March until 8 April 2026. 

Your input will help ensure the Criteria are robust, implementable and aligned with evolving climate risk realities, supporting investments that can withstand future hydrological shifts while protecting communities, ecosystems and long-term asset performance. 

This development is sponsored by The Co-operators. 

Submit your feedback