What was, is and will be: A bibliometric analysis of European Green Deal (EGD)

Abstract

European Green Deal (EGD) was introduced by the European Union in December 2019 with a pledge to transform the European Union into a carbon-neutral economy by the year 2050. This study intends to undertake a bibliometric evaluation of the existing literature on EGD. This research aims to precisely identify and evaluate the most influential sources, contributors and cited works in the EGD literature, as well as delineate primary research directions and geographical hotspots, thereby offering a comprehensive overview of the current state and trends within the field. An attempt has been made to identify the trends of the research on EGD, along with the top countries contributing to the literature on EGD. The emerging keywords in the EGD literature are traced to provide future research directions. A total of 846 research documents are obtained from the Scopus database, and the Visualization of Similarities (VOS) viewer software is used for data analysis. The results of the analysis reveal that sustainability, sustainable development, energy efficiency, energy policies, greenhouse emissions, climate change, biodiversity, circular economy and renewable energy emerge as prominent and interconnected areas of research within the academic discourse on the EGD.