The Research Development of Construction Carbon Emissions: A Visual Literature Review by Citespace

In order to achieve the goals of “carbon peak” and “ carbon neutrality”, carbon emissions from the construction industry need to be effectively controlled. In this paper, we conducted a scientometric visualization analysis based on CiteSpace of the literature in the core database of Web of science from 1996 to 2021 in the field of construction carbon emissions research. The results showed: (1) The number of research articles in the field of construction carbon emissions is approaching an exponential growth trend from 2001–2020; (2) the early research topics on construction carbon emissions mainly focused on three respects: life cycle assessment of construction energy, construction energy efficient materials, and construction energy efficiency solutions, while the later research provided more realistic guidance, and more interdisciplinary research was conducted to introduce the concept of “carbon footprint” and “carbon sequestration” (3) Reducing the environmental hazards of construction has always been a frontier issue in this field, and the latest research topics include energy efficiency, economic growth, etc. The most popular research topics are environment impact, building performance, carbon footprint, etc. The most common research method is the life cycle assessment approach. By analyzing the basic framework and development trend of construction carbon emissions research, we aim to better guide the scientific research in this field.