Thematic evolution of green finance in the banking sector for environmental sustainability using bibliometric analysis

The increased urgency of climate change and its implications to financial systems have gained intensified academic attention to green finance, especially in the banking domain. In spite of this growing body of literature, the studies that are available are still fragmented and most of them focus on single dimensions without providing a complete synthesis of the discipline. To fill this gap, this paper will conduct a bibliometric review to map and assess the trends, contributors, major clusters and future prospects of the research on green finance in the banking institutions. The paper is based on a dataset of 640 articles, the analysis of which is carried out with 4 research questions including (RQ1) analysis of publication trends, relevant journals, and institutional affiliations; (RQ2) determining dominant keywords; (RQ3) identifying major thematic clusters; and (RQ4) identifying future research avenues. The results indicate that there had been a significant publication growth since 2015, with a shift from conceptual and exploratory studies to empirical and data-driven research. The number of publications is higher in the case of China, but the average citations per publication is higher in Nigeria, suggesting that publication volume and citation impact do not necessarily coincide. The thematic and factorial analysis identifies few major areas, including climate risk and the stability of financial systems, green banking and mitigation of carbon emissions, the banking industry under sustainability pressure, and digital transformation as the means of developing green financial innovation. These clusters demonstrate how green finance research is a multidimensional field and technological shifts in the financial industry. In general, the study is relevant to literature in that it offers a systematic and thorough overview of the research trends, intellectual grounding, and emergent trends of green finance in the banking institutions. The findings are relevant to interest to researchers, policymakers, and other practitioners interested in making financial practices more sustainable and facilitate the shift towards a greener banking system. Not applicable.