Understanding how financial development shapes renewable energy investments is essential for designing effective economic policies aimed at ensuring environmental sustainability. This study explores to identify the current status, key literature insights, and evolving trends in the relationship between financial development (FD) and renewable energy (RE). In this context, the data obtained from the WoS database for the period 2015–2024 were analyzed using the bibliometric method. The results indicate rapid growth in the field, particularly since 2018, reflecting an increasing discussion of the role of the FD–RE nexus in climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals. The most productive publisher country, article author’s country, journal, author, and institution are, respectively, the UK, China, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Ilhan Ozturk from Türkiye, and the Lebanese American University. The most recent trend in the field is the increasing focus on natural resource and innovation-related issues within the FD–RE nexus. The themes formed based on the findings are renewable energy, financial development, economic growth, carbon emissions, and testing. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive overview of recent research on the FD–RE nexus and offers guidance for future studies. • A holistic understanding of the Financial Development–Renewable Energy nexus is vital for formulating effective environmental policies. • Among the most frequently used keywords in the Financial Development -Renewable Energy field, ' natural resources' and “ecological footprint” have emerged as the most recent trend.
YILDIZ et al. (Sat,) studied this question.