Limits to adaptation: discourse and governance of climate change loss and damage in Pacific Small Island Developing States

`Loss and damage' in developing countries from the adverse impacts of climate change is an emerging area of policy negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is premised on the notion that developed countries have a liability to help developing countries to respond to impacts which exceed the limits of their adaptive capacity. This concept has grown out of increasing recognition that livelihoods of people in Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) will be disproportionately affected by the adverse impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow onset impacts (such as sea level rise). I consider the ways in which loss and damage is developing as an area of policy discourse and demonstrate how it is being framed at differing scales and by different actors, as a new area of environmental governance. I argue that addressing loss and damage in PSIDS will require that joint responsibilities of developed and developing countries be assumed, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, and that synergies be drawn with existing structures of environmental and development governance. I conclude by asserting that an approach which addresses the underlying causes of social vulnerability will be vital for reducing exposure of PSIDS to loss and damage and for tackling the `social limits' of adaptation which manifest at the local scale (see Adger et al. 2009)