A bibliometric review of carbon footprint research

Abstract

With the global concern over climate change, many countries around the world have pledged to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. Carbon footprint (CF) analysis, as an important research method to evaluate carbon emissions, has gained significant traction in the academic community. This study aims to offer a comprehensive overview of this research domain, addressing existing gaps by conducting a bibliometrics analysis. Moreover, social network analysis (SNA) is conducted to uncover the relationships among different countries, authors, and institutions. Co-occurrence analysis of keywords and citation analysis of publications and corresponding references are also conducted to explore the core research topics in this field, including popular CF accounting methods. Results show that there has been growing interest in CF-related research from 2007 to 2022, with increasing amounts of publications, references, authors, and published countries. The most productive journals, countries, authors, and institutions are identified, and the collaboration networks among different academic groups are also analyzed. In addition, sustainability assessment, consumption-based CF accounting, and emission mitigation potential assessment are identified as research hotspots. Specific research topics include CF accounting at national and household scales, as well as for agricultural systems and universities. Life cycle assessment (LCA), input-output analysis (IOA), and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) accounting method are the most commonly applied methods in this field. Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages of these methods are specifically summarized and compared. In general, this study can provide comprehensive information for stakeholders interested in the CF-related field.