Mapping Research on Government Actions and Carbon Emissions: A Bibliometric Science-Mapping (2010–2025)

This study maps how the scholarly literature examines government actions in relation to carbon emissions, rather than estimating the impact of specific policies. We conduct a bibliometric science-mapping using the Web of Science Core Collection (2010–25 June 2025). After de-duplication, the corpus comprises 2212 publications. Using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Bibliometrix, we address three questions: (i) How have outputs, actors, and collaborations evolved? (ii) Which journals, authors, and works structure the field? (iii) How have research themes developed over time? We find sustained growth in publications, persistent cores around carbon pricing and regulatory approaches, and emerging clusters on carbon neutrality, innovation/green finance, and urbanization. To contextualize quantity with quality, we report age-adjusted citations (citations per year) and journal-quartile summaries for key units. A calibration subsample of citation contexts suggests that highly cited works are referenced both in substantive analytical ways and as passing mentions. Scope: This is a descriptive mapping; we do not present primary empirical data or causal estimates of policy effects. Implications: This review identifies concentrations, gaps, and research fronts to guide future empirical evaluations of policy effectiveness and cross-disciplinary work.