---
title: "Decarbonization research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “decarbonization” appeared in 796 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (559), operations research (83) and management (83)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/decarbonization
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/decarbonization.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 “decarbonization” appeared in 796 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (559), operations research (83) and management (83). (as of 2026-11-04)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-04T00:03:46+09:00
window: 2026-10-06 to 2026-11-04
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “decarbonization”

Research on “decarbonization” 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 “decarbonization” appeared in 796 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (559), operations research (83) and management (83).
- 146 of them were published in 2025, against 17 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (11), University College London (9) and Wuhan University (8).
- The journals publishing most of them were Energy Policy (124), Energy Economics (62) and Resources Policy (36).
- The most-cited of them is “Politicizing energy justice and energy system transitions: Fossil fuel divestment and a “just transition”” (Energy Policy, 2017), with 868 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) | 15 | 22 | 22 | 38 | 44 | 64 | 79 | 61 | 87 | 127 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 12 | 21 | 31 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 13 | 20 | 15 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 17 | 18 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 17 | 23 | 25 | 42 | 59 | 81 | 102 | 102 | 146 | 199 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 124 |
| 2 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 62 |
| 3 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 36 |
| 4 | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 23 |
| 5 | [Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/environmental-innovation-and-societal-transitions.md) | 17 |
| 6 | [Utilities Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/utilities-policy.md) | 15 |
| 7 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 13 |
| 8 | [Annals of Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/annals-of-operations-research.md) | 12 |
| 9 | [Computers & Industrial Engineering](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-industrial-engineering.md) | 11 |
| 10 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 10 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/centre-national-de-la-recherche-scientifique.md) | 11 |
| 2 | [University College London](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-college-london.md) | 9 |
| 3 | [Wuhan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/wuhan-university.md) | 8 |
| 4 | [Griffith University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/griffith-university.md) | 7 |
| 5 | [Lebanese American University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/lebanese-american-university.md) | 7 |
| 6 | [University of Cambridge](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-cambridge.md) | 7 |
| 7 | King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center | 6 |
| 8 | [Shanghai Jiao Tong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shanghai-jiao-tong-university.md) | 6 |
| 9 | [The University of Queensland](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland.md) | 6 |
| 10 | [The University of Sydney](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/the-university-of-sydney.md) | 6 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 137 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 74 |
| 3 | United States | 60 |
| 4 | Germany | 45 |
| 5 | France | 44 |
| 6 | Italy | 43 |
| 7 | Australia | 41 |
| 8 | Spain | 33 |
| 9 | India | 29 |
| 10 | Netherlands | 20 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [energy transition](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/energy-transition.md) | 89 |
| 2 | [CO2 emissions](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/co2-emissions.md) | 81 |
| 3 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 50 |
| 4 | [carbon pricing](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/carbon-pricing.md) | 36 |
| 5 | [energy efficiency](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/energy-efficiency.md) | 33 |
| 6 | [renewable energy](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/renewable-energy.md) | 33 |
| 7 | [climate policy](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/climate-policy.md) | 31 |
| 8 | energy security | 26 |
| 9 | carbon intensity | 24 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 868 | 7.7 | [Politicizing energy justice and energy system transitions: Fossil fuel divestment and a “just transition”](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.06.014) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2017-06-27 | Noel Healy, John Barry |
| 2 | 347 | 4.7 | [A Green New Deal without growth?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106832) | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 2020-09-21 | Riccardo Mastini, Giorgos Kallis, Jason Hickel |
| 3 | 335 | 6.0 | [Green finance and decarbonization: Evidence from around the world](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2022.102807) | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 2022-03-20 | Md Al Mamun, Sabri Boubaker, Duc Khuong Nguyen |
| 4 | 334 | 6.5 | [Does green finance counteract the climate change mitigation: Asymmetric effect of renewable energy investment and R&D](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106183) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2022-07-13 | Dongyang Zhang, Muhammad Mohsin, Farhad Taghizadeh Hesary |
| 5 | 329 | 4.0 | [A systematic review of motivations, enablers and barriers for consumer engagement with residential demand response](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111221) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2020-01-17 | Bryony Parrish, Philip J. Heptonstall, Robert Gross et al. |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “decarbonization”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/decarbonization

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-decarbonization,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “decarbonization”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/decarbonization}},
  urldate = {2026-11-04},
  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/).