German states call for EU-wide approach on coastal protection, costs to reach billions of euros

Protecting Germany’s North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts is expected to cost billions of euros in the coming years, government members of coastal states have warned and called for greater efforts both by the federal government and the European Union to ensure adequate funding, news agency dpa reported in an article published by news magazine Stern.

“We protect the whole country on our coasts,” said Tobias Goldschmidt, Green Party environment minister in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. He said the construction, repair and maintenance of dykes and other measures would become “a major financial effort” that the next government must begin to address – and which should ideally be dealt with by an EU-wide effort.

Lower Saxony’s environment minister Christian Meyer, also from the Green Party, said the state alone would have to build higher dykes on a length of more than 600 kilometres to protect against the impacts of climate change. The height would have to be increased by at least one metre but it could also become necessary to add up to three metres to adequately protect the region. “If the Greenland ice shield melts completely, experts expect a sea level rise of seven metres,” he added. Meyer also called for more funding from the federal government. “The next government has to massively increase its funding for coastal protection,” he argued. Lower Saxony invested a record 80 million euros in coastal protection in 2024.

Coastal protection funding is split between the states and the federal government at a ratio of 30 percent and 70 percent, respectively, said the article. Germany’s three coastal states currently plan for a sea level rise of one metre over 100 years and a gradual implementation of related protection measures.