A Comprehensive Bibliometric Mapping of Carbon-Footprint Calculators: Methods, Applications, and Methodological Fragmentation (2007–2025)

Abstract

The accurate interpretation of carbon-footprint measure is a key to the effective climate policy formulation, design of the sustainable production system, and the design of informed environmental decision-making. The current paper is an exploration of the methodological, technical, and applied aspects of the carbon-footprint calculators as a world-wide scholarly area based on the structural determinants of the system boundary, the variability of the emission factor, and the industrial or sector-specific modelling models and the socio-practical factors, which include the household behaviour, agricultural activities, and the use of the digital tools. Scopus was searched in which 124 publications, published between 2007 and 2025, were extracted and analyzed visually and by applying bibliometric methods through VOSviewer. Early review of research dynamics shows that the first phase of research (2007-2012) was followed by a velocity of growth and expansion of calculator tools (2013-2020) and then by a recent period of study (2021-2025) marked by methodological skepticism, digitalisation and integration of AI-enabled systems. The analysis of the author, country and keyword revealed that Europe and East Asia have the most contributions to the research, and the theme groups include household consumption modelling, AI-assisted agri-food infrastructures, and site-specific agricultural evaluation. Results indicate that despite the advancement of carbon-footprint calculators into highly complex decision support tools there exist considerable inconsistencies due to inconsistent methodological selection, data quality concerns, and differing assumptions on emission-factors. The new issues raise the need to have increased transparency, harmonisation, and interoperability to make policy more relevant and increase cross-study comparability. The research presents practical, methodological, and research implications to the stakeholders who want to enhance the efficacy and quality of carbon-accounting tools.