Water‐Food‐Energy Nexus Vulnerability and Sustainable Development: Implications for Health Adaptation to Climate Change

ABSTRACT Climate change generates systemic risks across interconnected water, food, and energy systems, with important implications for human health. Although scholars have widely discussed the water‐food‐energy (WFE) nexus, few studies have examined how nexus vulnerability shapes health adaptation or how governance conditions influence this relationship. This study develops an integrative framework that links WFE nexus vulnerability to health capacity and incorporates climate readiness as a multidimensional moderator. Using cross‐national data from global and Global South contexts, the study constructs and analyzes composite indicators of vulnerability, readiness, and health capacity. The results show no direct relationship between WFE nexus vulnerability and health capacity. Instead, water adaptive capacity emerges as a strong positive predictor, while climate readiness conditions the relationship. Governance readiness also negatively interacts with vulnerability, revealing a governance paradox under high‐risk conditions. These findings underscore the need to move beyond resource‐based approaches and adopt integrated, nexus‐based adaptation strategies that better align institutional readiness with underlying vulnerability.