Green Finance and Policy Uncertainty: A Structured Bibliometric Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

This article offers a bibliometric and structured literature review (SLR) on the green finance (GF) Corporate environmental performance (CEP) nexus, focusing on the largely untackled boundary condition the economic policy uncertainty (EPU). While previous research simply shows the GF as positively associated with sustainable yield globally, the role of policy volatility is at best scattered, hardly integrated, and unexplored systematically across countries. Based on the PRISMA protocol we reviewed more than 423 peer-reviewed articles published between 2012-2024 gathered from Scopus and Web of Science to subsequently apply bibliometric and content analyses to map thematic structures, geographic trends, and conceptual patterns. The findings suggest three minutes dominant themes of research GF/CEP/ESG linkages, green financial instrument and technological innovation as well as institution and disclosure frameworks and EPU solely appears as peripheral; with little comparative studies, EPU is rarely accessed additionally, the application of stronger cause effects designs are not sufficiently used. The contribution is predominantly focused on China, EU and the US, and shows little research interest in the nonlinear or threshold effect of uncertainty, institutional buffers such as TCFD/CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) disclosure quality, Science-Based Targets (SBTi), carbon pricing and green institutional ownership, or sectoral heterogeneity in high vs low emissions activities. The review contributes to both the stakeholder and resource-based views by blending institutional and real options theories to explain how policy instability conditions the ability of green finance to address environmental objectives. By integrating the fractured pieces of knowledge, delineating the essential voids, and suggesting a prospective agenda that focuses attention on the cross-market comparative research, nonlinear modeling of uncertainty, and the sector specific investigation, this research accommodates the theoretical as well as practical need to explore the extent to which stable governance environments can catalyze the greening effects of the green finance on the observable corporate behavior.