Beaches in Nigeria, Cyprus, and Italy top the list of most vulnerable.

Butbeaches themselvesare a commodity, vulnerable to retreat thatsexacerbated by climate change.

(The latter is the only American beach in the top 15 on the continent.)

Vacationers dry themselves off with a towel at Mackenzie Beach in Larnaca. Cyprus

Credit:Danil Shamkin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Overall North American beaches are less natural and more managed than South American ones, Vousdoukas said.

Just a moderate amount of emission reduction could save up to 40 percent of the shoreline retreat.

But right now, the more humans build up those shorelines, the more we threaten their natural movement.

A plane flying past Mackenzie Beach in Larnaca. Cyprus, a beach with umbrellas and chairs

Danil Shamkin/NurPhoto via Getty Images