Abstract: Green finance, as a practical solution to the problems of climate change and environmental pollution via the green fund allocation, plays an important role in the preservation of China’s ecological civilization and sustainable development. To have a better understanding of the research status of green finance and clarify its hot topics and thematic evolution is of great significance in improving China’s green financial system and facilitating the transition to a green economy. Based on 499 papers on green finance from CNKI from 2008 to 2021, this paper presents a systematic review of the research on green finance in China from the aspects of the number of publications, co-citation network, hot topics and thematic evolution.Results indicate that green finance, with rising publications, has attracted increasing attention from domestic academia. The research in the field focused on such topics as financial development, green economy transition, green financial products and green credit. Furthermore, five thematic evolution paths were identified along four research directions, which implied a trend of thematic integration in financial research frontiers. The study also suggests that inclusive finance and pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations will become two hot topics for further research.

Key words: green finance, hot topics for research, thematic evolution, bibliometric analysis