Reconnoitering trends and patterns in climate finance: a bibliometric analysis

Numerous studies have examined the crucial role of climate finance in mitigating the exacerbating effects of climate change and implementing adaptive measures, making it an emerging area of study. This paper employed bibliometric analysis on climate finance literature over the past two decades from 2004 to 2024. The data of 621 publications are extracted from Web of Science database using the keyword “Climate Finance”. The data is limited to certain subject areas like Environmental Studies and Environmental Sciences, Public Administration and Development Studies, Economics, and Business, Management and Business Finance. The study examines research trends, thematic and geographic patterns and visualizes collaborative networks on climate finance. The analysis found that there is significant growth in publications, especially since 2016, with notable contributions from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and China. With 81 publications and 1516 citations, Journal of climate policy holds top position among all journals. Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology is the most influential institution with highest number of publications. To demonstrate global participation and the interdependence between the research communities, the paper visualized collaboration networks among authors, journals and countries. Climate finance is the most commonly and frequently used term across literature. Keywords are classified into nine distinct clusters to identify the recurring themes in the field. Using Theory, Context, Characteristics and Methodology Framework (TCCM) framework, it provided content analysis on 40 curated articles to identify major theories, context, characteristics and methodologies used in the existing area of literature.