diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 6af620f768e..7f0447ddb16 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ answer newbie questions, and generally made Django that much better:
     Aron Podrigal <aronp@guaranteedplus.com>
     Artem Gnilov <boobsd@gmail.com>
     Arthur <avandorp@gmail.com>
+    Arthur Jovart <arthur@jovart.com>
     Arthur Koziel <http://arthurkoziel.com>
     Arthur Rio <arthur.rio44@gmail.com>
     Arvis Bickovskis <viestards.lists@gmail.com>
diff --git a/django/contrib/sitemaps/__init__.py b/django/contrib/sitemaps/__init__.py
index b13507a11ed..46a54ec8f2e 100644
--- a/django/contrib/sitemaps/__init__.py
+++ b/django/contrib/sitemaps/__init__.py
@@ -168,13 +168,13 @@ class Sitemap:
                 'lastmod': lastmod,
                 'changefreq': self._get('changefreq', item),
                 'priority': str(priority if priority is not None else ''),
+                'alternates': [],
             }
 
             if self.i18n and self.alternates:
-                alternates = []
                 for lang_code in self._languages():
                     loc = f'{protocol}://{domain}{self._location(item, lang_code)}'
-                    alternates.append({
+                    url_info['alternates'].append({
                         'location': loc,
                         'lang_code': lang_code,
                     })
@@ -182,11 +182,10 @@ class Sitemap:
                     lang_code = settings.LANGUAGE_CODE
                     loc = f'{protocol}://{domain}{self._location(item, lang_code)}'
                     loc = loc.replace(f'/{lang_code}/', '/', 1)
-                    alternates.append({
+                    url_info['alternates'].append({
                         'location': loc,
                         'lang_code': 'x-default',
                     })
-                url_info['alternates'] = alternates
 
             urls.append(url_info)
 
diff --git a/docs/releases/3.2.1.txt b/docs/releases/3.2.1.txt
index d5486f4cc92..4ad9eff5caf 100644
--- a/docs/releases/3.2.1.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/3.2.1.txt
@@ -30,3 +30,6 @@ Bugfixes
 * Fixed a regression in Django 3.2 that caused a crash of
   :attr:`.ModelAdmin.search_fields` when searching against phrases with
   unbalanced quotes (:ticket:`32649`).
+
+* Fixed a bug in Django 3.2 where variable lookup errors were logged rendering
+  the sitemap template if alternates were not defined (:ticket:`32648`).
diff --git a/tests/sitemaps_tests/test_http.py b/tests/sitemaps_tests/test_http.py
index b546c87fe64..021feb7ad87 100644
--- a/tests/sitemaps_tests/test_http.py
+++ b/tests/sitemaps_tests/test_http.py
@@ -255,9 +255,12 @@ class HTTPSitemapTests(SitemapTestsBase):
     @override_settings(LANGUAGES=(('en', 'English'), ('pt', 'Portuguese')))
     def test_simple_i18n_sitemap_index(self):
         """
-        A simple i18n sitemap index can be rendered.
+        A simple i18n sitemap index can be rendered, without logging variable
+        lookup errors.
         """
-        response = self.client.get('/simple/i18n.xml')
+        with self.assertRaisesMessage(AssertionError, 'no logs'):
+            with self.assertLogs('django.template', 'DEBUG'):
+                response = self.client.get('/simple/i18n.xml')
         expected_content = """<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 <url><loc>{0}/en/i18n/testmodel/{1}/</loc><changefreq>never</changefreq><priority>0.5</priority></url><url><loc>{0}/pt/i18n/testmodel/{1}/</loc><changefreq>never</changefreq><priority>0.5</priority></url>