In the past five years, 28 coastal municipalities have slowed coastal protection projects due to budget constraints, legislation and citizen opposition, according to a survey by the magazine Momentum, published by the National Association of Municipalities (KL).

The results, based on responses from 55 of Denmark’s 77 coastal municipalities, highlight the importance of long-term thinking to address the challenges posed by rising sea levels, says chair of KL’s Climate and Environment Committee Birgit Stenbak Hansen.

“A legislation change is required where civil resistance and misplaced concern for nature stands in the way of making necessary safeguards for coastal stretches,” she added.

In Seden Strandby in Odense Municipality, nature protection legislation has slowed the pace of work on a dyke to the west and north of the small district.

The area is part of the EU mapping Natura 2000, which ensures existing natural areas are protected. The dyke project, which proposes to cut through the gardens of several coastal houses to protect from storm surges, must work around these rules.

“It must be done properly, and we must take care of nature. It therefore takes longer and requires us to work in a different way than we would have done if the requirements were not there,” says the project manager on the EU project Climate Adaptation in Odense Michelle Moustgaard Birch.

The government has placed increased focus on coastal protection recently, in its so-called Climate Adaptation Plan 1, and in extending the ‘coastal pool’ – a grant scheme for municipalities to fund dykes and other coastal protection constructs.

In a written statement to Ritzau, Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke said: “We are looking at a future of more extreme weather and rising water levels, and therefore the government wants to speed up the coastal protection of Denmark.”