This review article examines the concept of slow violence in relation to the current climate collapse. It outlines the extractive relationship between states in the Global North and Global South, and explores how this relationship creates and sustains disproportionate climate violence for the Global South. It critiques proposed adaptation and mitigation solutions for the Global South that emphasize market-led proposals and a return on investments that mostly benefit the Global North. It argues that these proposals fail to critically engage with the root causes of vulnerability to climate change and Greenhouse Gas emissions that cause climate change. The review uses World Systems Theory to analyze the power differentials between South and North, and concepts such as the "Color Line," "Necropolitics," and "Slow Violence" to underline the post-colonial character of this relationship. These provide historical context to the current hegemonic role of the Global North in carbon emission negotiations and responses. In doing so, the article highlights the need to think about climate change, and solutions to climate change, as a driver of slow violence and surplus climate violence by the Global North against the Global South.
Introduction: Climate (in)Justice and Global Patterns of Disparity in Climate ImpactsThe sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) paints a picture of severe climate change with irreversible effects. Even if the world successfully limited further global warming, irreparable damage has already occurred in some places (IPCC 2022a). Countries in the Global North have historically contributed the most carbon emissions and hold greater capacity to reduce their emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change. Meanwhile, denizens of the Global South suffer a disparate distribution of climate harms despite having little contribution to aggregate emissions (Barnett 2007;Islam and Winkel 2017). This has resulted in unequal human suffering, such as forced relocations, loss of property, lower quality of