Characterization, Evolution and Trends of Carbon Neutrality Based on CiteSpace

Since the 21st century, the concept of carbon neutrality has been paid attention to and promoted by more and more countries, and in-depth research on carbon neutrality can help to improve the environmental situation, which is of great special significance to the sustainable development of economy and society. In this paper, based on the carbon neutrality related literature included in the China Knowledge Network (CNKI) database from 2013 to 2022, we use the bibliometric software CiteSpace to visualize and analyze the literature in the field of carbon neutrality. The results show that: (1) from the point of view of the characteristics of publications, the research on carbon neutrality in China has seen an explosive growth after the proposal of the "double carbon" goal in 2020, and there are more inter-institutional and inter-authorship cooperation, without obvious research barriers. (2) From the perspective of research fields, carbon neutral research in China is roughly divided into 10 clusters, and most of the clusters have a high degree of overlap, and their related research has good continuity. (3) From the viewpoint of research hotspots, the field of carbon neutrality is roughly divided into three branches: green transition, financial instruments and low-carbon technology, and the research under each branch has a tendency of continuation and refinement.