While there has been a strong focus on mitigating climate change to below 2°C, the lack of international action and the continued growth in greenhouse gas concentrations make it important to analyse the implications of higher-end scenarios (global average warming > 2°C with respect to pre-industrial level) for vulnerable areas. This will allow a better quantification of impacts and vulnerabilities associated with such climate change, showing that adaptation is possible at an affordable cost (compared to risk). It will furthermore inform policy and decision makers, contributing to raise awareness on the multiple dimensions of possible adaptation pathways. Coastal zones are amongst the most vulnerable regions of the world in the face of climatic change (threatened by sea-level rise, run-off into coastal lowlands and coastal storms). The obtained results are based on a set of models that consider global projections especially prepared for coastal systems to allow evaluating climate change impacts for present adaptation levels. The RISES-AM project aimed to investigate a range of future scenarios, considering the physical and the socio-economic components, in order to introduce a risk approach into climatic analysis to achieve a higher level of objectivity in the assessments and to account for uncertainties in drivers and responses. The results of RISES-AM have been derived from conceptual and numerical models that deal with impact projection for coastal systems and allow evaluating climate impacts for present adaptation levels. The results of the assessments show the importance of planning ahead in all categories to reduce climate change impacts and show the feedbacks between the physical and socio-economic sub-systems in the coastal zone.