COASTS, CLIMATE: U.S.- China Coastal Cities Project

More than one-third of the world's population lives within 60 miles of a coastline and thirteen of the world's twenty largest cities are located on a coast. Given the reality of global warming, these coastal populations will face severe challenges to their sustainability in the decades to come.

As industrial and commercial centres, many coastal cities are major contributors in their own right to high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore face the prospects of greater regulation and economic dislocation. In addition, these cities are particularly vulnerable to such long-term effects of global warming as sea-level rise, flooding, air pollution, and severe storms.

The Shell Coastal Cities Project seeks to assess the dimensions of the challenges facing major, low-lying estuary metropoles. In its first phase, the study focuses on major coastal cities with a large petrochemical industrial base, including Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou. Research activities include the development of a comprehensive and fully comparable survey of public attitudes and beliefs, to be conducted jointly in both the United States and China .