diff --git a/noxfile.py b/noxfile.py
index cdba605f06..d70ee35c26 100644
--- a/noxfile.py
+++ b/noxfile.py
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ def set_standard_env_vars(session):
     set_env(session, 'OS_STDERR_CAPTURE', '1')
     set_env(session, 'OS_STDOUT_CAPTURE', '1')
     set_env(session, 'OS_TEST_TIMEOUT', '360')
-    set_env(session, 'SQLALCHEMY_WARN_20', '1')
     session.env['PYTHONWARNINGS'] = ','.join([
         'always::DeprecationWarning:zuul.driver.sql.sqlconnection',
         'always::DeprecationWarning:tests.base',
@@ -45,7 +44,6 @@ def set_standard_env_vars(session):
 @nox.session(python='3')
 def bindep(session):
     set_standard_env_vars(session)
-    set_env(session, 'SQLALCHEMY_WARN_20', '1')
     session.install('bindep')
     session.run('bindep', 'test')
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 082a180439..e12e9cf723 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ PrettyTable>=0.6,<0.8
 babel>=1.0
 netaddr
 kazoo>=2.9.0
-sqlalchemy<2.0.0
+sqlalchemy>=2.0.0
 alembic
 cryptography>=39.0.0
 cachecontrol<0.12.7