Climate change is an important and emerging threat to public health. In the U.S. Caribbean, the impacts of climate change include reductions in the quality and quantity of water, effects on food security, impacts on the ability to control and manage infectious disease, and reductions in natural protection from disasters.

The effects of climate change on Caribbean islands—increases in streambank and coastal erosion, contaminated flood water, and debris transport—coupled with human activities such as agriculture and development are likely to cause shifts in the freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems surrounding the islands. Changes in the frequency and intensity of storms can alter physical and chemical properties of the ridge-to-reef connection from island watersheds to ocean waters.