Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13: A Bibliometric Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been at the forefront of the strategic policies of nations both developed and developing, envisioning innovation and long-term impacts. SGD 13 calls for embracing eco-efficient emerging transformation and its durable impacts on communities and nations. Since its introduction by the UN, this area has attracted a great deal of research interest. This study quantitatively analyses the empirical literature on United Nations’ Thirteen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 13) from early 2016 to 2025, as represented by English-language articles from the international database. This study employs a bibliometric approach plus content analysis on 607 articles found in the Scopus database. We designate the field's progress and structure, including co-authorship, co-citation, thematic map, and bibliographical coupling. Amongst all the results generated, it should be emphasized the identification of emerging innovated substantial themes “Climate change SDG”, “sustainable development goals” and “Industry achieve review”, present a major relevance to this field. Furthermore, “energy environmental carbon” was shown as a powerful theme of evolving sustainable innovation from the perspective of SDG13 debates. This study also offers extensive suggestions the future research directions.