Health and Climate Change: Country profile 2025 - Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Kitts and Nevis’s Health and Climate Change Country Profile 2025 provides a comprehensive overview of how climate change is affecting public health in this twin-island nation – and the steps being taken to build resilience. As a small island developing state, Saint Kitts and Nevis faces heightened exposure to sea level rise, extreme heat, hurricanes, and water scarcity, with significant implications for health systems, food and water security, and vulnerable populations. 

The profile highlights the country’s key health risks linked to climate change, including heat-related illnesses, vector-borne and waterborne diseases, food insecurity, and mental health challenges. With rising temperatures and more frequent disasters, health facilities, especially those along the coast, face increasing strain. A growing burden of noncommunicable diseases further compounds the nation’s climate vulnerability. 

Despite these challenges, Saint Kitts and Nevis is advancing efforts to strengthen its health system’s adaptive capacity. The country has conducted a national vulnerability and adaptation assessment, established a Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Committee, and participated in the Green Climate Fund Caribbean Readiness Project led by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to lay the foundation for the development of a health national adaptation plan by 2026. Investments in early warning systems, workforce training, and infrastructure retrofitting are under way. 

However, gaps remain in intersectoral coordination, climate-informed surveillance, and access to sustainable financing. This profile identifies priority areas for future action, including expanding SMART health facility initiatives, developing a climate-smart health workforce, and improving safe water and sanitation systems. 

As part of PAHO’s regional initiative, this profile serves as a strategic tool to support policy coherence, build institutional capacity, and guide evidence-based decision-making for protecting health in the face of climate change in Saint Kitts and Nevis.