Coastal protection

The papers presented stress the importance of investing in coastal protection and defence to mitigate the impact of climate change in coastal areas. Despite that, there is very little data available on how much EU Member States are spending for coastal protection and defence. The main reason for this lack of data is to be found in how government expenditure is categorised, because “coastal protection expenditure” is not identified as such. For example, the Classification of the functions of government (COFOG) identifies “Environmental protection” as a broad category (divisions in COFOG) including the following items (groups in COFOG): Waste management Water waste management Pollution abatement Protection of biodiversity and landscape R&D related to environmental protection.