Volume 32: A Sustainable, Clean and Carbon-free Energy Future

Current Status and Prospects of Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) in the Context of Carbon Neutrality: A bibliometric perspective Lintao Shao, Qingrui Wang, Yangxue Wang, Qing Yang, Hanping Chen

Abstract

With the proposal of “carbon neutrality”, research on global warming mitigation and low-carbon transformation of energy system has been widely focused. The Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) is an important model for studying energy supply and demand, and making strategic decisions in terms of economics and policy, which can formulate reasonable and effective low-carbon development plans based on energy policies, energy structures and energy technology development levels. However, there is no knowledge mapping domain of IAMs in the context of carbon neutrality, which makes it difficult for researchers to follow the hotspots and select the appropriate IAM. In this paper, 11770 unique research papers on IAMs were retrieved from the Web of Science core database and analyzed by bibliometric mapping using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. Knowledge mapping is used to visualize the countries/regions, researchers, and journals that have made major contributions, and to analyze the network of collaborative relationships between them. The results show that the growth of relevant IAMs research is large and has been studied from multiple perspectives on climate change. Keyword analysis shows that research hotspots include “climate change”, “life cycle assessment” and “sustainability assessment”; in the burst detection, “machine learning” has been widely incorporated into research over the last two years. The paper also discusses the interplay between scientific research and policy, pointing out that policy guidance is complementary to IAMs research. This study can provide the IAMs with recommendations for future development decisions on low carbon development issues.

Keywords Integrated assessment model, Knowledge mapping, Citespace, VOSviewer, Carbon neutrality