This chapter explores loss and damage knowledge politics in Antigua and Barbuda, one of the few countries with national legislation referring specifically to loss and damage. At the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties in 2022, which achieved a breakthrough agreement to establish a loss and damage fund, the country played a critical role as chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. The chapter traces the role of international influences and national institutions in shaping national loss and damage policies, and finds that there are knowledge politics at play when it comes to loss and damage in Antigua and Barbuda. These include conflicting incentives for deepening the understanding of loss and damage: while a better understanding of future scenarios aids better development planning, it can also alarm large investors (often from the Global North) about climate risks, with this potentially leading to raising fears about stranded assets and capital flight. The chapter is based on twelve semi-structured interviews with national and international policy actors, civil servants, and non-governmental organization actors in Antigua and Barbuda, textual analysis, participant observations, and first-hand experiences of international climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Solar geoengineering is presently being researched through indoor work and outdoor experiments without potential transboundary impacts. Existing national and subnational legislation and common law govern such activities, including for their environmental risks, and is an essential component of the existing governance framework within which solar geoengineering is developing. To offer a case study, this chapter reviews applicable American law. The United States was chosen because its environmental legal regime is among the most elaborate and influential, and because solar geoengineering research is presently moving forward most rapidly there. The text considers three major pieces of federal environmental legislation: the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Liability for harm, which is found in the common law of torts, is briefly introduced. Thereafter, the chapter describes relevant laws regarding weather modification and marine pollution, as well as a federal geoengineering bill. A salient question throughout this concerns the extraterritorial application of US law.