Advances and future trends in research on carbon emissions reduction in China from the perspective of bibliometrics

Addressing global warming is one of the most pressing environmental challenges and a crucial agenda for humanity. In this literature study, we employed bibliometrics to reproduce nearly two decades of research on carbon emission reduction in China, the largest carbon emitter worldwide. The scientometrics analysis was conducted on 1570 academic works published between 2001 and 2021 concerning China’s carbon emission reduction to characterize the knowledge landscape. Using CiteSpace and VOSviewer, the basic characteristics, research forces, knowledge base, research topic evolution, and research hotspots were identified and revealed. The analysis results show that the attention to and research on China’s carbon emissions have increased in recent years, giving rise to leading institutions and relatively stable core journal groups in this field. The research disciplines are relatively concentrated, but the research collaboration needs strengthening. The research hotspots are mainly carbon emission causes, impacts, and countermeasures in China, and the research frontiers have been constantly advanced and expanded. In the future, research on countermeasures needs more effort, and research cooperation needs to strengthen. The changing landscape of hotspot clusters reveals China’s transition towards a low-carbon economy. Through comprehensive analysis of the potential and obstacles to China’s transition to low-carbon development, we identified three promising areas of action (low-carbon cities, low-carbon technologies and industries, and transforming China’s energy system) and proposed research directions to address remaining gaps systematically.