Linking Climate Risk, Green Finance, and Corporate Low-Carbon Transformation: A Bibliometric and Topic Modeling Analysis
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Climate change is reshaping the risks firms face and the terms on which they raise capital, making the links among climate risk, green finance, and corporate low-carbon transformation increasingly important. Existing reviews mostly focus on one of these themes, leaving open how often studies connect them. Drawing on 1369 Web of Science articles published from 2015 to 2025, this review combines bibliometric mapping with topic modeling to trace how the field has evolved and how closely the three themes connect. The literature has grown quickly since 2021, much of it from China. It builds on research into how markets price climate information and how regulation and green credit relate to corporate innovation, with green bond studies bridging the two, and attention has shifted toward firm-level evaluations of green finance policies and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. About half of the articles link green finance with corporate transformation, whereas only about one in twenty connects climate risk with green finance. These findings highlight the feedback from corporate transformation to risk exposure and financing costs as a promising direction, and suggest that considering risk, finance, and transformation together can help green finance better support an orderly low-carbon transition.
DOI: 10.3390/jrfm19110911
Authors: Xue Lei, Jian Xu, Shanshan Yue, Yihang Zhao
Language: English
Subfield: Finance
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $1,689
OpenAlex ID: W7225835327