Governing Contested Spaces: Green Goals Vs. Blue Spaces in Marine Spatial Planning

The massive expansion of offshore wind energy production, a cornerstone of Germany’s energy transition, poses pressing environmental challenges, including habitat loss, underwater noise, and disruptions to migratory species. The main instrument for balancing competing energy and environmental goals in the German North and Baltic Seas is Germany’s Maritime Spatial Plan (MSP), which was developed through a multi-stage participatory process from September 2019 to June 2021. This paper seeks to understand the discourse and decision-making surrounding the MSP and the expansion of renewable energy in Germany. Drawing on 576 publicly documented stakeholder submissions on an initial draft version of the German MSP, we identify the arguments and concerns raised during the policy process. The data allows us to explicitly trace which arguments were incorporated in the final MSP. We contextualise these findings by mapping relevant regulations across governance levels (national, European, United Nations). By linking these regulatory frameworks to the arguments and concerns raised by stakeholders, we assess how governance structures and legal mandates shaped the inclusion—or exclusion—of specific stakeholder positions in the final MSP. Our research highlights the challenges of reconciling large-scale renewable energy expansion with nature conservation in contested marine spaces and offers broader insights into governance strategies for multi-use marine environments.