---
title: "Carbon emission reduction research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “carbon emission reduction” appeared in 875 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (339), operations research (324) and finance (80)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/carbon-emission-reduction
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/carbon-emission-reduction.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “carbon emission reduction” appeared in 875 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (339), operations research (324) and finance (80). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “carbon emission reduction”

Research on “carbon emission reduction” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “carbon emission reduction” appeared in 875 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (339), operations research (324) and finance (80).
- 146 of them were published in 2025, against 31 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Hong Kong Polytechnic University (23), Wuhan University (14) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (13).
- The journals publishing most of them were Energy Economics (54), Computers & Industrial Engineering (49) and Energy Policy (43).
- The most-cited of them is “Effects of digital economy on carbon emission reduction: New evidence from China” (Energy Policy, 2022), with 628 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 16 | 25 | 16 | 19 | 27 | 29 | 62 | 61 | 47 | 37 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 14 | 11 | 12 | 20 | 28 | 31 | 39 | 61 | 53 | 55 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 21 | 23 | 20 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 6 | 14 | 13 | 5 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 11 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 31 | 39 | 30 | 43 | 65 | 82 | 134 | 173 | 146 | 132 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 54 |
| 2 | [Computers & Industrial Engineering](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-industrial-engineering.md) | 49 |
| 3 | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 43 |
| 4 | [Expert Systems with Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications.md) | 30 |
| 5 | [Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-e-logistics-and-transportation-review.md) | 28 |
| 6 | [Annals of Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/annals-of-operations-research.md) | 25 |
| 7 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 25 |
| 8 | [International Journal of Production Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-production-economics.md) | 24 |
| 9 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 22 |
| 10 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 20 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 23 |
| 2 | [Wuhan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/wuhan-university.md) | 14 |
| 3 | [Huazhong University of Science and Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/huazhong-university-of-science-and-technology.md) | 13 |
| 4 | [Beijing Institute of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beijing-institute-of-technology.md) | 12 |
| 5 | [Shanghai University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shanghai-university.md) | 12 |
| 6 | [Hunan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hunan-university.md) | 11 |
| 7 | [Tianjin University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/tianjin-university.md) | 10 |
| 8 | [Xi'an Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xi-an-jiaotong-university.md) | 10 |
| 9 | [Anhui University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/anhui-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 9 |
| 10 | North China Electric Power University | 9 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 424 |
| 2 | United States | 45 |
| 3 | India | 39 |
| 4 | United Kingdom | 38 |
| 5 | Australia | 36 |
| 6 | Hong Kong | 29 |
| 7 | France | 19 |
| 8 | Taiwan | 19 |
| 9 | South Korea | 14 |
| 10 | Italy | 13 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 84 |
| 2 | [emissions trading](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/emissions-trading.md) | 59 |
| 3 | [CO2 emissions](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/co2-emissions.md) | 43 |
| 4 | [carbon tax](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/carbon-tax.md) | 40 |
| 5 | [green finance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-finance.md) | 37 |
| 6 | [green innovation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-innovation.md) | 30 |
| 7 | [carbon pricing](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/carbon-pricing.md) | 28 |
| 8 | [environmental regulation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-regulation.md) | 28 |
| 9 | [regional heterogeneity](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/regional-heterogeneity.md) | 27 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 628 | 12.8 | [Effects of digital economy on carbon emission reduction: New evidence from China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113271) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2022-10-01 | Ming Yi, Yafen Liu, Mingyue Selena Sheng et al. |
| 2 | 610 | 9.1 | [The role of green finance in reducing CO2 emissions: An empirical analysis](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bir.2021.03.002) | [Borsa Istanbul Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/borsa-istanbul-review.md) | 2021-03-23 | Muhammad Saeed Meo, Mohd Zaini Abd Karim |
| 3 | 578 | 9.9 | [Green technology innovations, urban innovation environment and CO2 emission reduction in China: Fresh evidence from a partially linear functional-coefficient panel model](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121434) | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 2021-12-21 | Boqiang Lin, Ruiyang Ma |
| 4 | 506 | 8.1 | [Towards carbon neutrality by implementing carbon emissions trading scheme: Policy evaluation in China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112510) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2021-08-14 | Xing Chen, Boqiang Lin |
| 5 | 497 | 8.4 | [How does industrial structure adjustment reduce CO2 emissions? Spatial and mediation effects analysis for China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105704) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2021-11-20 | Jun Zhao, Qingzhe Jiang, Xiucheng Dong et al. |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “carbon emission reduction”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/carbon-emission-reduction

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-carbon-emission-reduction,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “carbon emission reduction”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/carbon-emission-reduction}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).