Progress and Prospects of Research on Climate Policy and Governance

Research on climate policy and governance has rapidly evolved since the early 1990s,yet there is a lack of a systematic review,especially in quantitative methods,that provides an overall account of this interdisciplinary field.This article provides a bibliometric analysis of 2487 SSCI journal articles published from 1990 to 2018 to characterize the intellectual landscape of climate policy and governance literature by visualizing the changes in researchers’collaboration and publications’cocitation and identifying the emerging research agenda.The findings show that publications on this topic have surged since the Kyoto Protocol came into effect in 2005.Environmental studies,economics,and public administration are three major disciplines drawing high attention to this field.Scholars and research institutions from the United States,the United Kingdom,and Germany have maintained dominance over climate policy and governance design.Moreover,we identify three pressing topics for creating future research agendas,including adaptive capacity,technology and innovation,and urban governance.Green technology innovation,local climate governance and the increasing political awareness will become future research trends.