Advancing International Climate Cooperation for Small Island States: Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis of SDG 17 Implementation

Under Sustainable Development Goal 17 (SDG 17) and related strategies, small island states (SISs) have gradually moved from commitment to practice in terms of international cooperation on climate change governance in an era of polycrisis; therefore, there is a need to analyze past progress, current trends, and future developments in this field. Through bibliometric analysis, this study analyzes academic trends in international cooperation for SISs with regard to climate change adaptation and mitigation. It then evaluates the main features of the selected publications from the perspective of SDG 17 implementation. The major dimensions of SDG 17 discussed in the relevant literature include capacity building, finance and trade, technology, and systemic issues. Key SDG 17 targets, such as partnership building, technology transfer, climate finance, and data capacity enhancement, are addressed in the existing research. Relatively little attention has been paid to institutional coupling mechanisms, long-term cooperation, policy autonomy, and interdisciplinary integration. Future actions should be based on the development of cooperation mechanisms, the construction of regional collaborative networks, the localization of technology, the effectiveness of long-term capacity building, and the integration of data and policies. Furthermore, it is necessary to explore sustainable and replicable models of international cooperation, and to improve the framework for mapping research to SDG 17 targets.