Uncovering the mineral constraints on energy transition under climate change targets: A bibliometric review

Abstract

Many countries proposed their ambitious climate change targets to address the global warming challenge through accelerating the pace of energy transition towards renewable energy. However, such transition will increase the demand for critical minerals. This paper conducts a thorough bibliometric review of the related literature to offer a holistic understanding on such challenges. First, the definition of climate change target, energy transition and critical mineral are clarified. Second, a systematic bibliometric search and analysis are conducted to identify research trends. It revealed that the number of related publications has grown significantly over the past decade. Then, the most productive countries, institutions, authors, main academic disciplines, the most popular methods and the energy sectors that are most focused in this field are identified. Results show that the entire energy system, wind and solar renewable energies were the most focused energy technologies. Stock-driven Material Flow Analysis (MFA) emerges as the main methodology employed. China and Chinese authors were the most productive in this field. In addition, the hot topics and future directions of publications were identified through dividing keywords into climate change, mineral, and energy. Finally, a mineral-energy-climate knowledge framework is constructed to illustrate the linkage between mineral constraints, climate change and energy transition.