---
title: "SDG 13 Climate action: research papers"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), SDG 13 (Climate action) was addressed by 26,705 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (16,616), finance (3,336) and operations research (2,939). It is #4 of the 17 goals by papers from 2023 to 2025 (11,807)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/sdgs/13-climate-action
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/sdgs/13-climate-action.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), SDG 13 (Climate action) was addressed by 26,705 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (16,616), finance (3,336) and operations research (2,939). (as of 2026-10-31)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-10-31T17:45:59+09:00
window: 2026-10-02 to 2026-10-31
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# SDG 13: Climate action

Papers in the tracked journals on UN Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate action. OpenAlex assigns a paper to each UN Sustainable Development Goal that its classifier scores above 0.4 from the paper's text; a paper can belong to several goals or to none.

All 17 goals: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/sdgs.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), SDG 13 (Climate action) was addressed by 26,705 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (16,616), finance (3,336) and operations research (2,939).
- It is #4 of the 17 goals by papers from 2023 to 2025 (11,807).
- 4,598 of them were published in 2025, against 1,440 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Lebanese American University (244), Xiamen University (217) and Xi'an Jiaotong University (206).
- The journals publishing most of them were Energy Economics (1,735), Energy Policy (1,417) and Resources Policy (801).
- The most-cited of them is “Do Investors Care about Carbon Risk?” (Journal of Financial Economics, 2019), with 3,369 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) | 1,166 | 1,288 | 1,192 | 1,260 | 1,378 | 1,580 | 2,004 | 2,282 | 2,302 | 2,164 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 18 | 24 | 20 | 38 | 105 | 165 | 326 | 713 | 1,098 | 829 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 154 | 156 | 137 | 160 | 212 | 277 | 357 | 423 | 544 | 519 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 54 | 58 | 85 | 127 | 190 | 256 | 251 | 295 | 289 | 305 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 16 | 30 | 23 | 32 | 65 | 141 | 158 | 194 | 252 | 230 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 13 | 11 | 18 | 26 | 32 | 19 | 17 | 19 | 21 | 28 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 3 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 36 | 35 | 46 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 4 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 15 | 9 | 11 | 25 | 18 | 29 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 28 | 14 | 19 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 5 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 10 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 6 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
| All categories | 1,440 | 1,580 | 1,497 | 1,688 | 2,018 | 2,474 | 3,167 | 4,042 | 4,598 | 4,201 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 1,735 |
| 2 | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 1,417 |
| 3 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 801 |
| 4 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 795 |
| 5 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 649 |
| 6 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 509 |
| 7 | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 483 |
| 8 | [Land Use Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/land-use-policy.md) | 453 |
| 9 | [Expert Systems with Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications.md) | 383 |
| 10 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 380 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | Lebanese American University | 244 |
| 2 | [Xiamen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xiamen-university.md) | 217 |
| 3 | [Xi'an Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xi-an-jiaotong-university.md) | 206 |
| 4 | [Chinese Academy of Sciences](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/chinese-academy-of-sciences.md) | 205 |
| 5 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 199 |
| 6 | [Beijing Institute of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beijing-institute-of-technology.md) | 197 |
| 7 | [Renmin University of China](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/renmin-university-of-china.md) | 193 |
| 8 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 184 |
| 9 | [Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/centre-national-de-la-recherche-scientifique.md) | 181 |
| 10 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 181 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 7,241 |
| 2 | United States | 1,781 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 1,534 |
| 4 | France | 937 |
| 5 | Germany | 910 |
| 6 | Australia | 872 |
| 7 | Italy | 846 |
| 8 | India | 668 |
| 9 | Spain | 542 |
| 10 | Turkey | 482 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 1,771 |
| 2 | [CO2 emissions](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/co2-emissions.md) | 1,760 |
| 3 | [green innovation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-innovation.md) | 906 |
| 4 | [energy transition](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/energy-transition.md) | 882 |
| 5 | [green finance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-finance.md) | 800 |
| 6 | environmental regulation | 725 |
| 7 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 644 |
| 8 | climate policy | 637 |
| 9 | [climate risk](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/climate-risk.md) | 634 |
| 10 | climate change | 629 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3,369 | 35.9 | [Do Investors Care about Carbon Risk?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.05.008) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2019-01-01 | Patrick G M Bolton, Marcin T. Kacperczyk |
| 2 | 2,629 | 38.1 | [Corporate green bonds](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.01.010) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2021-01-31 | Caroline Flammer |
| 3 | 2,232 | 31.9 | [Sustainable investing in equilibrium](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.12.011) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2020-12-31 | Ľuboš Pástor, Robert F. Stambaugh, Lucian A. Taylor |
| 4 | 1,505 | 14.0 | [How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.10.050) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2017-11-22 | Daniel Balsalobre‐Lorente, Muhammad Qaiser Shahbaz, David Roubaud et al. |
| 5 | 1,378 | 14.3 | [The effect of pro-environmental preferences on bond prices: Evidence from green bonds](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2018.10.012) | [Journal of Banking & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-banking-finance.md) | 2018-10-25 | Olivier David Zerbib |
| 6 | 1,202 | 15.3 | [Artificial intelligence for sustainability: Challenges, opportunities, and a research agenda](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102104) | [International Journal of Information Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-information-management.md) | 2020-04-20 | Rohit Nishant, Mike Kennedy, Jacqueline Corbett |
| 7 | 1,193 | 12.0 | [Environmental degradation in France: The effects of FDI, financial development, and energy innovations](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2018.07.020) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2018-07-29 | Muhammad Qaiser Shahbaz, Muhammad Ali Nasir, David Roubaud |
| 8 | 1,187 | 11.6 | [Just transition: Integrating climate, energy and environmental justice](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.04.014) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2018-04-24 | Darren McCauley, Raphael James Heffron |
| 9 | 1,185 | 20.8 | [How does green finance affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.105863) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2022-01-29 | Chi‐Chuan Lee, Chien‐Chiang Lee, Chien‐Chiang Lee et al. |
| 10 | 1,130 | 22.3 | [Dissecting green returns](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2022.07.007) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2022-08-12 | Ľuboš Pástor, Robert F. Stambaugh, Lucian A. Taylor |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). SDG 13: Climate action. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 31, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/sdgs/13-climate-action

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-sdgs-13-climate-action,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {SDG 13: Climate action},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/sdgs/13-climate-action}},
  urldate = {2026-10-31},
  note = {Journal 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/).