Abstract
In recent years, the carbon footprint is regarded as the most important assessment tool of greenhouse gas emissions; it has attracted great attention of Chinese and foreign governments, enterprises, and relevant scholars. However, the comparative bibliometric analysis of Chinese and foreign articles on the carbon footprint research is still limited; thus, it has become the motivation of the present study. To quantitatively analyse the bibliometric differences between Chinese and foreign literature of the carbon footprint research, 673 Chinese articles and 3755 foreign articles between 2007 and 2020 were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database. On this basis, the publications, publishers, journals, authors, and institutions of Chinese and foreign articles were compared, and especially, the keyword and citation analysis results were obtained via the biblioshiny tool of bibliometrix R package. Results show that the output and influence of foreign articles are more prominent than Chinese articles in general. The foreign carbon footprint research is more systematic and mature than Chinese research, and both sides have some research topics of common concern and maintain their own research characteristics. Specific results may provide some reference for relevant researchers, policy makers, and the public.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets used or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Aria M, Cuccurullo C (2017) bibliometrix: an R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. J Informetr 11(4):959–975
Benjaafar S, Li Y, Daskin M (2012) Carbon footprint and the management of supply chains: insights from simple models. IEEE T Autom Sci Eng 10(1):99–116
Capper JL, Cady RA, Bauman DE (2009) The environmental impact of dairy production: 1944 compared with 2007. J Anim Sci 87(6):2160–2167
Cederberg C, Persson UM, Neovius K, Molander S, Clift R (2011) Including carbon emissions from deforestation in the carbon footprint of Brazilian beef. Environ Sci Technol 45(5):1773–1779
Chen C (2006) CiteSpace II: Detecting and visualizing emerging trends and transient patterns in scientific literature. J Am Soc Inf Sci Tec 57(3):359–377
Chen R, Zhang R, Han H (2021) Where has carbon footprint research gone? Ecol Indic 120:106882
Cheng K, Pan G, Smith P, Luo T, Li L, Zheng J, Zheng X, Han X, Yan M (2011) Carbon footprint of China’s crop production—an estimation using agro-statistics data over 1993–2007. Agr Ecosyst Environ 142(3–4):231–237
Cheng K, Yan M, Nayak D, Pan GX, Smith P, Zheng JF, Zheng JW (2015) Carbon footprint of crop production in China: an analysis of National Statistics data. J Agr SCI-Cambridge 153(3):422–431
Cobo MJ, López-Herrera AG, Herrera-Viedma E, Herrera F (2011) An approach for detecting, quantifying, and visualizing the evolution of a research field: a practical application to the Fuzzy Sets Theory field. J Informetr 5(1):146–166
Čuček L, Klemeš JJ, Kravanja Z (2012) A review of footprint analysis tools for monitoring impacts on sustainability. J Clean Prod 34:9–20
Dayaratne SP, Gunawardana KD (2015) Carbon footprint reduction: a critical study of rubber production in small and medium scale enterprises in Sri Lanka. J Clean Prod 103:87–103
Druckman A, Jackson T (2009) The carbon footprint of UK households 1990–2004: a socio-economically disaggregated, quasi-multi-regional input–output model. Ecol Econ 68(7):2066–2077
Fang K, Heijungs R, de Snoo GR (2014) Theoretical exploration for the combination of the ecological, energy, carbon, and water footprints: overview of a footprint family. Ecol Indic 36:508–518
Flysjö A, Cederberg C, Henriksson M, Ledgard S (2011a) How does co-product handling affect the carbon footprint of milk? Case study of milk production in New Zealand and Sweden. Int J Life Cycle Ass 16(5):420–430
Flysjö A, Cederberg C, Henriksson M, Ledgard S (2012) The interaction between milk and beef production and emissions from land use change–critical considerations in life cycle assessment and carbon footprint studies of milk. J Clean Prod 28:134–142
Flysjö A, Henriksson M, Cederberg C, Ledgard S, Englund JE (2011b) The impact of various parameters on the carbon footprint of milk production in New Zealand and Sweden. Agr Syst 104(6):459–469
Fu HZ, Ho YS (2015) Top cited articles in thermodynamic research. J Eng Thermophys-Rus 24(1):68–85
Gadema Z, Oglethorpe D (2011) The use and usefulness of carbon labelling food: a policy perspective from a survey of UK supermarket shoppers. Food Policy 36(6):815–822
Gan Y, Liang C, Chai Q, Lemke RL, Campbell CA, Zentner RP (2014) Improving farming practices reduces the carbon footprint of spring wheat production. Nat Commun 5(1):1–13
Gan Y, Liang C, May W, Malhi SS, Niu J, Wang X (2012) Carbon footprint of spring barley in relation to preceding oilseeds and N fertilization. Int J Life Cycle Ass 17(5):635–645
Hertwich EG, Peters GP (2009) Carbon footprint of nations: a global, trade-linked analysis. Environ Sci Technol 43(16):6414–6420
Hillier J, Hawes C, Squire G, Hilton A, Wale S, Smith P (2009) The carbon footprints of food crop production. Int J Agr Sustain 7(2):107–118
Hirsch JE (2005) An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102(46):16569–16572
Hu Y, Lin J, Cui S, Khanna NZ (2016) Measuring urban carbon footprint from carbon flows in the global supply chain. Environ Sci Technol 50(12):6154–6163
Hua G, Cheng TCE, Wang S (2011) Managing carbon footprints in inventory management. Int J Prod Econ 132(2):178–185
Huang X, Chen C, Qian H, Chen M, Deng A, Zhang J, Zhang W (2017) Quantification for carbon footprint of agricultural inputs of grains cultivation in China since 1978. J Clean Prod 142:1629–1637
IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: The physical science basis. In: Solomon S (ed) Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, p 996
Jones CM, Kammen DM (2011) Quantifying carbon footprint reduction opportunities for US households and communities. Environ Sci Technol 45(9):4088–4095
Jones C, Kammen DM (2014) Spatial distribution of US household carbon footprints reveals suburbanization undermines greenhouse gas benefits of urban population density. Environ Sci Technol 48(2):895–902
Larsen HN, Hertwich EG (2011) Analyzing the carbon footprint from public services provided by counties. J Clean Prod 19(17–18):1975–1981
Laurent A, Olsen SI, Hauschild MZ (2012) Limitations of carbon footprint as indicator of environmental sustainability. Environ Sci Technol 46(7):4100–4108
Li Z, Chen Z, Yang N, Wei K, Ling Z, Liu Q, Chen G, Ye BH (2021) Trends in research on the carbon footprint of higher education: a bibliometric analysis (2010–2019). J Clean Prod 289:125642
Lin J, Hu Y, Cui S, Kang J, Ramaswami A (2015) Tracking urban carbon footprints from production and consumption perspectives. Environ Res Lett 10(5):054001
Lin J, Liu Y, Meng F, Cui S, Xu L (2013) Using hybrid method to evaluate carbon footprint of Xiamen City, China. Energ Policy 58:220–227
Matthews HS, Hendrickson CT, Weber CL (2008) The importance of carbon footprint estimation boundaries. Environ Sci Technol 42(16):5839–5842
Mi Z, Zhang Y, Guan D, Shan Y, Liu Z, Cong R, Yuan X, Wei YM (2016) Consumption-based emission accounting for Chinese cities. Appl Energ 184:1073–1081
Minx J, Baiocchi G, Wiedmann T, Barrett J, Creutzig F, Feng K, Förster M, Pichler P, Weisz H, Hubacek K (2013) Carbon footprints of cities and other human settlements in the UK. Environ Res Lett 8(3):035039
Nijdam D, Rood T, Westhoek H (2012) The price of protein: review of land use and carbon footprints from life cycle assessments of animal food products and their substitutes. Food Policy 37(6):760–770
Ozawa-Meida L, Brockway P, Letten K, Davies J, Fleming P (2013) Measuring carbon performance in a UK University through a consumption-based carbon footprint: De Montfort University case study. J Clean Prod 56:185–198
Pandey D, Agrawal M, Pandey JS (2011) Carbon footprint: current methods of estimation. Environ Monit Assess 178(1):135–160
Peng B, Guo D, Qiao H, Yang Q, Zhang B, Hayat T, Alsaedi A, Ahmad B (2018) Bibliometric and visualized analysis of China’s coal research 2000–2015. J Clean Prod 197:1177–1189
Peters GM, Rowley HV, Wiedemann S, Tucker R, Short MD, Schulz M (2010) Red meat production in Australia: life cycle assessment and comparison with overseas studies. Environ Sci Technol 44(4):1327–1332
Peters GP, Minx JC, Weber CL, Edenhofer O (2011) Growth in emission transfers via international trade from 1990 to 2008. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108(21):8903–8908
Raza MS, Khahro SH, Memon SA, Ali TH, Memon NA (2021) Global trends in research on carbon footprint of buildings during 1971–2021: a bibliometric investigation. Environ Sci Pollut R 28:63227–63236
Rotz CA, Montes F, Chianese DS (2010) The carbon footprint of dairy production systems through partial life cycle assessment. J Dairy Sci 93(3):1266–1282
Shi S, Yin J (2021) Global research on carbon footprint: a scientometric review. Environ Impact Asses 89:106571
Sinden G (2009) The contribution of PAS 2050 to the evolution of international greenhouse gas emission standards. Int J Life Cycle Ass 14(3):195–203
Song G, Li M, Semakula HM, Zhang S (2015) Food consumption and waste and the embedded carbon, water and ecological footprints of households in China. Sci Total Environ 529:191–197
Tian X, Chang M, Lin C, Tanikawa H (2014) China’s carbon footprint: a regional perspective on the effect of transitions in consumption and production patterns. Appl Energ 123:19–28
Wang Y, Xie Y, Zhou R, Hu X, Li X (2021) A comparative bibliometric analysis of Chinese and foreign articles in environmental footprint family (EFF) research. Environ Sci Pollut R 28:26280–26293
Wang Z, Yang Y, Wang B (2018) Carbon footprints and embodied CO2 transfers among provinces in China. Renew Sust Energ Rev 82:1068–1078
Weber CL, Matthews HS (2008) Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint. Ecol Econ 66(2–3):379–391
Xie Y, Li X, Hu X, Hu X (2020) The landscape of academic articles in environmental footprint family research: a bibliometric analysis during 1996–2018. Ecol Indic 118:106733
Xu X, Lan Y (2017) Spatial and temporal patterns of carbon footprints of grain crops in China. J Clean Prod 146:218–227
Xue JF, Liu SL, Chen ZD, Chen F, Lal R, Tang HM, Zhang HL (2014) Assessment of carbon sustainability under different tillage systems in a double rice cropping system in Southern China. Int J Life Cycle Ass 19(9):1581–1592
Xue JF, Pu C, Liu SL, Zhao X, Zhang R, Chen F, Xiao LP, Zhang HL (2016) Carbon and nitrogen footprint of double rice production in Southern China. Ecol Indic 64:249–257
Yan M, Cheng K, Luo T, Yan Y, Pan G, Rees RM (2015) Carbon footprint of grain crop production in China–based on farm survey data. J Clean Prod 104:130–138
Yang X, Gao W, Zhang M, Chen Y, Sui P (2014) Reducing agricultural carbon footprint through diversified crop rotation systems in the North China Plain. J Clean Prod 76:131–139
Yang Y, Meng G (2019) A bibliometric analysis of comparative research on the evolution of international and Chinese ecological footprint research hotspots and frontiers since 2000. Ecol Indic 102:650–665
Yang Y, Meng G (2020) The evolution and research framework of carbon footprint: based on the perspective of knowledge mapping. Ecol Indic 112:106125
Yue T, Liu H, Long R, Chen H, Gan X, Liu J (2020) Research trends and hotspots related to global carbon footprint based on bibliometric analysis: 2007–2018. Environ Sci Pollut R 27(15):17671–17691
Zhang D, Shen J, Zhang F, Zhang W (2017) Carbon footprint of grain production in China. Sci Rep 7(1):1–11
Zhang WF, Dou ZX, He P, Ju XT, Powlson D, Chadwick D, Norse D, Lu YL, Zhang Y, Wu L, Chen XP, Cassman KG, Zhang FS (2013) New technologies reduce greenhouse gas emissions from nitrogenous fertilizer in China. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(21):8375–8380
Zhang XQ, Pu C, Zhao X, Xue JF, Zhang R, Nie ZJ, Chen F, Lal R, Zhang HL (2016) Tillage effects on carbon footprint and ecosystem services of climate regulation in a winter wheat–summer maize cropping system of the North China Plain. Ecol Indic 67:821–829
Ziegler F, Winther U, Hognes ES, Emanuelsson A, Sund V, Ellingsen H (2013) The carbon footprint of Norwegian seafood products on the global seafood market. J Ind Ecol 17(1):103–116
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions, which helped us to improve the paper. This research was supported by the Anhui Province Postdoctoral Research Funding Project (Grant No. 2021B542).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Rong Wu: Conceptualisation, writing-review and editing, visualisation, methodology, and software. Yundong Xie: Conceptualisation, supervision, validation, writing-review and editing, and visualisation. Yezhu Wang: Writing-review and editing, visualisation, and methodology. Zhi Li: Software and writing-review and editing. Li Hou: Methodology and writing-review and editing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues.
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wu, R., Xie, Y., Wang, Y. et al. The comparative landscape of Chinese and foreign articles on the carbon footprint using bibliometric analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 35471–35483 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18493-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18493-8