Examining the Domain of Green Finance Through Bibliometric Research Analysis of 22 Years (2000–2022): An Analytical Retrospective

Abstract

Green finance has evolved as a concept aiming to integrate environmental protection and economic profits. Growing global concern towards climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, industrial pollution control, waste management, and environmental protection has caught the attention of countries and policymakers towards innovative financial products and services that are used to address a broader range of environmental concerns. Financial instruments such as green bonds, green stocks and loans effectively guide capital investment towards environment-friendly projects and promote the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. Thus, green finance is considered a compelling concept that plays a vital role in promoting sustainability. The authors used the Scopus database to perform a bibliometric review of green finance from 2001 to 2022 to determine the current trend and progress in the field. The article presents a thorough bibliometric and temporal analysis that provides inputs that other researchers on this topic have not evaluated. VoS Viewer and Biblioshiny. The software was used to visually analyse the data and identify patterns of co-occurrences and prominent research themes. The graphical and systematic mapping illustrates the evolution in publications over time and identifies areas of current research interests. The findings show that the research on green finance has gained momentum from 2014 onwards. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the green finance-related research, which will help the researchers and policymakers to examine better the trends and future direction of the development of green finance.