Carbon neutralization frontier tracking

This systematic study on the international research trends in carbon neutrality underscores its critical role in combating global warming and advancing sustainable development. By leveraging the “Web of Science Core Collection” databases and employing CiteSpace software for visual analysis, we examined 2223 research papers to track the influence and trends of key countries, institutions, and authors. Our results reveal a significant increase in publication volume, indicating a robust development potential for carbon neutrality research. The study also identifies environmental science, environmental research, and energy and fuel science as central interdisciplinary hubs, highlighting the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration. Notably, China leads in publication output but has room for improvement in citation impact, suggesting a need for enhanced research quality and international visibility. The study's findings are instrumental for guiding future research directions, policy-making, and interdisciplinary cooperation, particularly in the fields of environmental science and energy, to accelerate progress towards carbon neutrality and global climate governance.