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ABSTRACT
Many countries have made carbon neutrality pledges in response to climate change. In this study, we collected 2,918 publications related to carbon neutrality from the Web of Science and conducted a bibliometric analysis. In this field, we discovered: (1) The number of publications has gone through three phases, with 66.6% of total publications during 2015–2021; research was dominated by the US, with four of the ten most influential institutions coming from it. In 2016, China exceeded the UK in terms of annual publications and ranked second. (2) Academic collaboration among the Top 20 productive countries was extensive, with co-authors from 12 of the 20 countries publishing more than 50% of the total. (3) Co-word analysis indicated that during 2000–2007, researchers focused mainly on ecological carbon sinks; during 2008–2014, carbon markets, bioenergy, and bio-based products attracted attention; during 2015–2021, carbon sequestration technologies, hydrogen, and fuel cells were the focus.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant (no. 72174196, 71874193), Huo Yingdong Education Foundation (Grant no. 171072), the Open Research Project of State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining (China University of Mining and Technology) (no. SKLCRSM21KFA05), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. 2022JCCXNY02, 2022YJSNY01).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Because carbon neutrality is a relatively new concept, the search period was 2000–2021 and the following results show that there were few carbon neutrality-related studies before 2007.
2. In this study, the publications from China included data from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau; the publications from the UK consisted of data from England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jing-Li Fan
Dr. Jing-Li Fan is a Professor at School of Energy and Mining Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing Campus. Her main research interests are energy and environment complex system modeling, energy and climate change economics, investment decision and evaluation of emission reduction technologies.
Zixia Ding
Zixia Ding is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Energy and Mining Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing Campus. She is mainly engaged in the research of water-energy-food networks and low-carbon technology analysis related fields.
Kai Li
Kai Li is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Energy and Mining Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing Campus, with research interests in deep carbon reduction technology assessment and related energy-economy-environment complex system modeling.
Qian Wang
Qian Wang graduated from the School of Energy and Mining Engineering of China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing Campus with a master's degree and her major research area is energy and climate economics.
Xian Zhang
Dr. Xian Zhang is a Professor and the Director of the Division of Social Service and Regional Development, the Administrative Center for China’s Agenda 21 (ACCA21), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST). He has been dedicated to the research in the filed of climate change economics and low-carbon technology investment assessment.