Climate change adaptation strategies on the German coast

Climate change adaptation strategies on the German coast include European, national, and regional politics, different economic and civilian sectors as well as coastal protection. In general, climate change refers to statistically identifiable changes in climate properties that persist over a longer period of time.^[1] The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines it as a change in climate caused by human activity that can be observed in addition to natural climate variability.^[2] This can be described as anthropogenic climate change. Climate change poses local level impacts on the German coast and for the present and future, suitable adaptation strategies are necessary. In 2008, the Federal Cabinet of Germany decided on a German Climate Change Adaptation Strategy with the objective of creating a national action framework for reducing the risks for the population, habitats as well as the economy.^[3]

Adaptation is a contested, widely discussed term with no general definition. For the German Adaptation Strategy the definition of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is utilized, stating that adaptation is the adjustment of natural or human systems to occurring or expected changes in climate in order to reduce harm. This approach views climate change as the major source of vulnerability and does not consider any social causes.^[4] The German Coast comprises 1600 km to the west at the North Sea and 2100 km to the east at the Baltic Sea. In total, five states border the German coast. Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg are part of the North Sea region; Mecklenburg-Vorpommern border the Baltic Sea and Schleswig-Holstein is located at both seas. Coast can be defined as the zone where the land is considerably influenced by the sea and vice versa.^[5]