Global evaluation of carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions: current challenges and future outlook

Abstract

With the acceleration of urbanization and industrialization, carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions have become common sustainability goals worldwide. However, there are few literature statistics and econometric analyses targeting carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions, especially the publication trends, geographic distribution, citation literature, and research hotspots. To conduct an in-depth analysis of existing research fields and future perspectives in this research area, 1615 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection, between 2010 and 2020, were evaluated by using three analysis tools, under the framework of the bibliometrics method. These publications are distributed between the start-up (2010–2015) and the stable development (2016–2020) phases. Cluster analysis suggests three areas of ongoing research: energy-related carbon emissions, methane emissions, and energy biomass. Overall, future trends in this field include cumulative carbon emissions, the residential building sector, methane emission measurement, nitrogen fertilization, land degradation neutrality, and sciamachy satellite methane measurement. Finally, this paper further examines the most comprehensive coverage of nitrogen fertilization and the most recent research of the residential building sector. In view of the statistical clusters from 1615 publications, this paper provides new insights and perspectives for climate-environment-related researchers and policymakers. Specifically, countries could apply nitrogen fertilizer to crops according to the conditions of different regions. Additionally, experiences from developed countries could be learned from, including optimizing the energy supply structure of buildings and increasing the use of clean energy to reduce CO2 emissions from buildings.