On the Theoretical Conceptualisations, Knowledge Structures and Trends of Green New Deals

Abstract

The increasing impacts of climate change, coupled with the Greta Thunberg effect, the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, and varied environmental policy documents, are pointing to the need for urgent and cohesive climate action and mitigation frameworks. One potent solution, gaining global acceptance, is that of the Green New Deal (GND), positioned as a radical rethinking of political and economic structures in view of pushing sustainability at the forefront of national, regional, and global issues. With the model rapidly gaining ground in various geographies, and in different forms in view of contextualization needs, there is a need to better understand its evolution, knowledge structures, and trends. This paper thus sets forth to provide an understanding of the evolution and implementation of GND through a bibliometric analysis and science mapping techniques using VOSviewer and CiteSpace to identify the thematic focus of 1174 articles indexed in the Web of Science since 1995. To understand the thematic evolution of the field over time, we divided the study period into three sub-periods, namely 1995–2014, 2015–2019, and 2020–2021. These sub-periods were determined considering important milestones related to GNDs. Term co-occurrence analyses were then conducted to understand thematic focus and associated trends. Also, co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling were other methods applied to identify major sources, authors, publications, and countries that have made more contributions to the development of research on GNDs. The findings of this paper can help both researchers and policy makers understand the evolution and trends of GNDs to better formulate GNDs strategies and policies in accordance with varying needs and geographies.

Mitigation and Development Pathways in the Near to Mid-term

“…The just transition concept has thus become an international focal point tying together social movements, trade unions, and other key stakeholders to ensure equity is better accounted for in low-carbon transitions and to seek to protect workers and communities. It also forms a central pillar of the growing movement for a 'Green New Deal' -a roadmap for a broad spectrum of policies, programs, and legislation that aims to rapidly decarbonise the economy while significantly reducing economic inequality (Allam et al 2021;Galvin and Healy 2020). The US Green New Deal Resolution (Ocasio-Cortez 2019) for example, positions structural inequality, poverty mitigation, and a just transition at its centre.…”

Research Structure and Trends of Smart Urban Mobility

“…In particular, these technologies are expected to feed into the concepts of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Intelligent Traffic Management Systems and others, which as shown in the analysis, have attracted substantial interest from researchers. Going forward, especially post-pandemic, the increased use of different technologies in enhancing smart mobility will gain even further attention, as the pandemic has already prompted concepts such as social distancing, virtual communication, work-from-home that have not previously been part of urban lifestyles [80,81].…”

The Rising Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine War: Energy Transition, Climate Justice, Global Inequality, and Supply Chain Disruption

“…For global justice and universal achievement of equitable climate change mitigation, there is a need for urgent consideration to reduce green premiums globally to facilitate social and economic growth equity across the board, as highlighted in different New Green Deals (GND) agendas [84][85][86][87][88]. Further, there is also a need to increase financial support in the global south to unlock the development and manufacturing capacities for increased green energy solutions, as emphasized during the COP26 and also in the latest report by the IPCC.…”