Evolution of Carbon Finance and Carbon Markets: A Bibliometric Analysis

5 Discussion and Conclusion

5.1 Discussion

The escalating global climate crisis has led to increased attention on the carbon trading system as a crucial complementary mechanism for achieving net-zero emissions. This has prompted governments worldwide to prioritize energy and economic transformations towards renewable energy consumption. Concurrently, the evolution of carbon finance and carbon markets has driven more companies to explore opportunities in carbon trading, aiming to achieve low-carbon development goals while reaping economic benefits. This underscores the importance of optimizing the carbon market system, improving carbon pricing mechanisms, and establishing a robust and comprehensive carbon pricing framework.

(1) Optimizing the carbon market system and providing more support to developing countries

The global carbon market exhibits a positive trend of international cooperation. Firstly, the construction and planning of carbon markets at various national and regional levels are steadily progressing, expanding their geographical scope and influence. Secondly, carbon markets globally should continuously enhance their mechanisms, including expanding industry coverage, diversifying trading types, and optimizing quota allocation ratios. Lastly, developing countries, like China, are encouraged to learn from the carbon market design experience of developed countries, and gradually expand the industry coverage of carbon markets in a phased and systematic manner. Further support should be provided to countries in Africa, using carbon market revenues to assist regions highly affected by climate change.

(2) Improving carbon pricing mechanisms

As a crucial component of the carbon market, the carbon pricing mechanism is vital for achieving global decarbonization of the economy and energy. To meet climate targets, governments need to establish different pricing combinations within carbon pricing tools. Firstly, both the carbon emissions trading system and carbon taxation will expand their coverage, becoming the mainstream trend in the future. Secondly, the coverage of the carbon credit market will gradually widen, and there may be unified standards for carbon pricing mechanisms across countries. Furthermore, governments will continue to promote indirect carbon pricing tools such as fuel consumption taxes, adopting a mix of pricing tools to advance global climate change efforts.

(3) Promoting the legal foundation of carbon markets

Government departments worldwide may accelerate the legislative process for carbon markets. Firstly, based on the practical issues encountered during the development of carbon markets, standardized carbon emissions trading management systems should be introduced early to establish a legal foundation for carbon market construction. Secondly, clear and specific top-level designs should be provided for the future development of carbon markets, guiding the collaborative efforts of market participants. Finally, strengthening carbon market regulation, avoiding market manipulation and improper behavior, and establishing comprehensive market monitoring and risk management mechanisms to ensure fairness, impartiality, and transparency. These actions will effectively promote the realization of economic decarbonization and the achievement of the dual-carbon goals.

5.2 Conclusion

This study employed a bibliometric approach, using the Web of Science and Scopus databases to review the mainstream and emerging research areas in carbon finance and carbon market studies. Our research findings indicate a significant increase in the number of publications in the field of carbon finance and carbon markets. The most prolific journal in this field is the Journal of Cleaner Production. The main contributing countries are China, the United States, and Australia, with China being particularly prominent, demonstrating its confidence and determination in achieving the dual-carbon goals. Through keyword clustering analysis, the current hot topics in carbon finance and carbon market research were categorized as carbon market policy and carbon trading mechanism research, carbon finance and carbon market risk research, carbon market spillover effect research, and carbon finance tool design, pricing, and price prediction research. Finally, we summarized the evolution path of carbon finance and carbon markets through timeline analysis and keyword emergence analysis, which can be roughly divided into three stages: the initial development stage with policy formulation and connotation determination, the stable development stage with the establishment of carbon market systems, and the rapid development stage with the improvement of carbon market mechanisms.