IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i2p967-d1025601.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evolution of Green Finance: A Bibliometric Analysis through Complex Networks and Machine Learning

Author

Listed:
  • Mariana Reis Maria

    (Institute of Economics, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas 13083-857, SP, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Rosangela Ballini

    (Institute of Economics, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas 13083-857, SP, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Roney Fraga Souza

    (Faculty of Economics, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá 78060-900, MT, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

A fundamental structural transformation that must occur to break global temperature rise and advance sustainable development is the green transition to a low-carbon system. However, dismantling the carbon lock-in situation requires substantial investment in green finance. Historically, investments have been concentrated in carbon-intensive technologies. Nonetheless, green finance has blossomed in recent years, and efforts to organise this literature have emerged, but a deeper understanding of this growing field is needed. For this goal, this paper aims to delineate this literature’s existing groups and explore its heterogeneity. From a bibliometric coupling network, we identified the main groups in the literature; then, we described the characteristics of these articles through a novel combination of complex network analysis, topological measures, and a type of unsupervised machine learning technique called structural topic modelling (STM). The use of computational methods to explore literature trends is increasing as it is expected to be compatible with a large amount of information and complement the expert-based knowledge approach. The contribution of this article is twofold: first, identifying the most relevant articles in the network related to each group and, second, the most prestigious topics in the field and their contributions to the literature. A final sample of 3275 articles shows three main groups in the literature. The more mature is mainly related to the distribution of climate finance from the developed to the developing world. In contrast, the most recent ones are related to climate financial risks, green bonds, and the insertion of financial development in energy-emissions-economics models. Researchers and policy-makers can recognise current research challenges and make better decisions with the help of the central research topics and emerging trends identified from STM. The field’s evolution shows a clear movement from an international perspective to a nationally-determined discussion on finance to the green transition.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariana Reis Maria & Rosangela Ballini & Roney Fraga Souza, 2023. "Evolution of Green Finance: A Bibliometric Analysis through Complex Networks and Machine Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-23, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:967-:d:1025601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/2/967/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/2/967/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aria, Massimo & Cuccurullo, Corrado, 2017. "bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 959-975.
    2. Naoki Shibata & Yuya Kajikawa & Katsumori Matsushima, 2007. "Topological analysis of citation networks to discover the future core articles," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 58(6), pages 872-882, April.
    3. Unruh, Gregory C., 2002. "Escaping carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 317-325, March.
    4. Fankhauser, Samuel & Sahni, Aditi & Savvas, Annie & Ward, John, 2016. "Where are the gaps in climate finance?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64179, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Brett Christophers, 2017. "Climate Change and Financial Instability: Risk Disclosure and the Problematics of Neoliberal Governance," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(5), pages 1108-1127, September.
    6. Andreas Karpf & Antoine Mandel, 2018. "The changing value of the ‘green’ label on the US municipal bond market," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(2), pages 161-165, February.
    7. Goshu Desalegn & Anita Tangl, 2022. "Developing Countries in the Lead: A Bibliometric Approach to Green Finance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-19, June.
    8. Barrett, Sam, 2014. "Subnational Climate Justice? Adaptation Finance Distribution and Climate Vulnerability," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 130-142.
    9. Jonathan Pickering & Frank Jotzo & Peter J. Wood, 2015. "Sharing the Global Climate Finance Effort Fairly with Limited Coordination," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(4), pages 39-62, November.
    10. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Kahia, Montassar, 2019. "Impact of renewable energy consumption and financial development on CO2 emissions and economic growth in the MENA region: A panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 198-213.
    11. Salahuddin, Mohammad & Gow, Jeff & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2015. "Is the long-run relationship between economic growth, electricity consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and financial development in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries robust?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 317-326.
    12. Reboredo, Juan C., 2018. "Green bond and financial markets: Co-movement, diversification and price spillover effects," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 38-50.
    13. Jale Samuwai & Jeremy Maxwell Hills, 2018. "Assessing Climate Finance Readiness in the Asia-Pacific Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, April.
    14. Unruh, Gregory C., 2000. "Understanding carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 817-830, October.
    15. Margaret E. Roberts & Brandon M. Stewart & Edoardo M. Airoldi, 2016. "A Model of Text for Experimentation in the Social Sciences," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 111(515), pages 988-1003, July.
    16. Stefano Battiston & Antoine Mandel & Irene Monasterolo & Franziska Schütze & Gabriele Visentin, 2017. "A climate stress-test of the financial system," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(4), pages 283-288, April.
    17. Mariana Mazzucato & Gregor Semieniuk, 2017. "Public financing of innovation: new questions," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(1), pages 24-48.
    18. Karen Pittel & Dirk Rübbelke, 2013. "International Climate Finance and Its Influence on Fairness and Policy," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 419-436, April.
    19. Ozturk, Ilhan, 2010. "A literature survey on energy-growth nexus," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 340-349, January.
    20. M. M. Kessler, 1963. "Bibliographic coupling between scientific papers," American Documentation, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 10-25, January.
    21. Acheampong, Alex O., 2019. "Modelling for insight: Does financial development improve environmental quality?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 156-179.
    22. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 740-798, September.
    23. Lutz Bornmann & Rüdiger Mutz, 2015. "Growth rates of modern science: A bibliometric analysis based on the number of publications and cited references," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(11), pages 2215-2222, November.
    24. Kevin W. Boyack & Richard Klavans, 2010. "Co‐citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and direct citation: Which citation approach represents the research front most accurately?," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(12), pages 2389-2404, December.
    25. Nees Jan Eck & Ludo Waltman, 2010. "Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(2), pages 523-538, August.
    26. Weiler, Florian & Klöck, Carola & Dornan, Matthew, 2018. "Vulnerability, good governance, or donor interests? The allocation of aid for climate change adaptation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 65-77.
    27. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2012. "Temperature Shocks and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 66-95, July.
    28. Woo, Su-Han & Pettit, Stephen J. & Kwak, Dong-Wook & Beresford, Anthony K.C., 2011. "Seaport research: A structured literature review on methodological issues since the 1980s," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 667-685, August.
    29. Pickering, Jonathan & Skovgaard, Jakob & Kim, Soyeun & Roberts, J. Timmons & Rossati, David & Stadelmann, Martin & Reich, Hendrikje, 2015. "Acting on Climate Finance Pledges: Inter-Agency Dynamics and Relationships with Aid in Contributor States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 149-162.
    30. Luis Abadie & Ibon Galarraga & Dirk Rübbelke, 2013. "An analysis of the causes of the mitigation bias in international climate finance," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 18(7), pages 943-955, October.
    31. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasir, Muhammad Ali & Roubaud, David, 2018. "Environmental degradation in France: The effects of FDI, financial development, and energy innovations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 843-857.
    32. Boutabba, Mohamed Amine, 2014. "The impact of financial development, income, energy and trade on carbon emissions: Evidence from the Indian economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 33-41.
    33. Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Yoshino, Naoyuki, 2019. "The way to induce private participation in green finance and investment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 98-103.
    34. Joel B. Smith & Thea Dickinson & Joseph D.B. Donahue & Ian Burton & Erik Haites & Richard J.T. Klein & Anand Patwardhan, 2011. "Development and climate change adaptation funding: coordination and integration," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 987-1000, May.
    35. J. Timmons Roberts & Romain Weikmans, 2017. "Postface: fragmentation, failing trust and enduring tensions over what counts as climate finance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 129-137, February.
    36. Irene Monasterolo & Stefano Battiston & Anthony C. Janetos & Zoey Zheng, 2017. "Vulnerable yet relevant: the two dimensions of climate-related financial disclosure," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 495-507, December.
    37. Martin Stadelmann & Axel Michaelowa & J. Timmons Roberts, 2013. "Difficulties in accounting for private finance in international climate policy," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(6), pages 718-737, November.
    38. Grajzl, Peter & Murrell, Peter, 2019. "Toward understanding 17th century English culture: A structural topic model of Francis Bacon's ideas," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 111-135.
    39. Deleidi, Matteo & Mazzucato, Mariana & Semieniuk, Gregor, 2020. "Neither crowding in nor out: Public direct investment mobilising private investment into renewable electricity projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    40. Johan Rockström & Will Steffen & Kevin Noone & Åsa Persson & F. Stuart Chapin & Eric F. Lambin & Timothy M. Lenton & Marten Scheffer & Carl Folke & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber & Björn Nykvist & Cynthia , 2009. "A safe operating space for humanity," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7263), pages 472-475, September.
    41. Emanuele Campiglio & Yannis Dafermos & Pierre Monnin & Josh Ryan-Collins & Guido Schotten & Misa Tanaka, 2018. "Climate change challenges for central banks and financial regulators," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(6), pages 462-468, June.
    42. Kevin W. Boyack & Richard Klavans, 2010. "Co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and direct citation: Which citation approach represents the research front most accurately?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(12), pages 2389-2404, December.
    43. Dogan, Eyup & Seker, Fahri, 2016. "The influence of real output, renewable and non-renewable energy, trade and financial development on carbon emissions in the top renewable energy countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1074-1085.
    44. Bert Scholtens, 2007. "Financial and Social Performance of Socially Responsible Investments in the Netherlands," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(6), pages 1090-1105, November.
    45. Luis Gomez-Echeverri, 2013. "The changing geopolitics of climate change finance," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(5), pages 632-648, September.
    46. Philipp Krueger & Zacharias Sautner & Laura T Starks, 2020. "The Importance of Climate Risks for Institutional Investors," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1067-1111.
    47. Carola Betzold & Florian Weiler, 2017. "Allocation of aid for adaptation to climate change: Do vulnerable countries receive more support?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 17-36, February.
    48. Zhang, Dayong & Zhang, Zhiwei & Managi, Shunsuke, 2019. "A bibliometric analysis on green finance: Current status, development, and future directions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 425-430.
    49. Aidy Halimanjaya, 2015. "Climate mitigation finance across developing countries: what are the major determinants?," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 223-252, March.
    50. Wang, Moran & Li, Xuerong & Wang, Shouyang, 2021. "Discovering research trends and opportunities of green finance and energy policy: A data-driven scientometric analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    51. Barrett, Scott, 1998. "Political Economy of the Kyoto Protocol," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 20-39, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bhatnagar, S. & Sharma, D., 2022. "Evolution of green finance and its enablers: A bibliometric analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Jonathan Pickering & Carola Betzold & Jakob Skovgaard, 2017. "Special issue: managing fragmentation and complexity in the emerging system of international climate finance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-16, February.
    3. Peterson, Lauri & Skovgaard, Jakob, 2019. "Bureaucratic politics and the allocation of climate finance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 72-97.
    4. Aghilasse Kashi & Mohamed Eskandar Shah, 2023. "Bibliometric Review on Sustainable Finance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-30, April.
    5. Gregor Semieniuk & Emanuele Campiglio & Jean‐Francois Mercure & Ulrich Volz & Neil R. Edwards, 2021. "Low‐carbon transition risks for finance," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), January.
    6. Lamperti, Francesco & Bosetti, Valentina & Roventini, Andrea & Tavoni, Massimo & Treibich, Tania, 2021. "Three green financial policies to address climate risks," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    7. Carè, R. & Weber, O., 2023. "How much finance is in climate finance? A bibliometric review, critiques, and future research directions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Roy Kouwenberg & Chenglong Zheng, 2023. "A Review of the Global Climate Finance Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-32, January.
    9. Toshiyuki Hasumi & Mei-Shiu Chiu, 2022. "Online mathematics education as bio-eco-techno process: bibliometric analysis using co-authorship and bibliographic coupling," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(8), pages 4631-4654, August.
    10. Yiming Xiao & Han Wu & Guohua Wang & Hong Mei, 2021. "Mapping the Worldwide Trends on Energy Poverty Research: A Bibliometric Analysis (1999–2019)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-22, February.
    11. Wenbing Luo & Ziyan Tian & Shihu Zhong & Qinke Lyu & Mingjun Deng, 2022. "Global Evolution of Research on Sustainable Finance from 2000 to 2021: A Bibliometric Analysis on WoS Database," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-23, August.
    12. Seemab Ahmad & Dilawar Khan & Róbert Magda, 2022. "Assessing the Influence of Financial Inclusion on Environmental Degradation in the ASEAN Region through the Panel PMG-ARDL Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    13. Zabavnik, Darja & Verbič, Miroslav, 2021. "Relationship between the financial and the real economy: A bibliometric analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 55-75.
    14. Khare, Apoorv & Jain, Rajesh, 2022. "Mapping the conceptual and intellectual structure of the consumer vulnerability field: A bibliometric analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 567-584.
    15. Louis Daumas, 2021. "Should we fear transition risks - A review of the applied literature," Working Papers 2021.05, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    16. Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & López-Cabarcos, M. Ángeles & Romero-Castro, Noelia María & Pérez-Pico, Ada María, 2020. "Innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge in the business scientific field: Mapping the research front," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 475-485.
    17. Lin, Boqiang & Okoye, Jude O., 2023. "Towards renewable energy generation and low greenhouse gas emission in high-income countries: Performance of financial development and governance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    18. Yulei Xie & Ling Ji & Beibei Zhang & Gordon Huang, 2018. "Evolution of the Scientific Literature on Input–Output Analysis: A Bibliometric Analysis of 1990–2017," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-17, September.
    19. Ignacio Rodríguez-Rodríguez & José-Víctor Rodríguez & Niloofar Shirvanizadeh & Andrés Ortiz & Domingo-Javier Pardo-Quiles, 2021. "Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data and the Internet of Things to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scientometric Review Using Text Mining," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-29, August.
    20. Ying Huang & Wolfgang Glänzel & Lin Zhang, 2021. "Tracing the development of mapping knowledge domains," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 6201-6224, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:967-:d:1025601. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.