Seventeen countries that are home to one-fourth of the world’s population are under extremely high water stress, and the climate crisis compounds the problem. Although water is not an explicit component of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations notes that it is “an essential component of nearly all the mitigation and adaptation strategies.”

Over the past year, CLASP assessed the viability of introducing water efficiency policies in the world’s top-18 carbon-emitting economies in the appliances sector, focusing specifically on policies for faucets and showerheads. CLASP ranked each country by the relative urgency and potential for impactful policies based on factors such as hot water consumption, pressure on water resources, and projected population increases. CLASP also assessed the viability of successfully implementing water efficiency policies, based on prerequisites such as existing water or efficiency policies.