The circular carbon economy is receiving increasing research attention as an essential tool for reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change. However, there is no research on the literature distribution and the current situation of the circular carbon economy studies. This paper presents a scientometric analysis of 1452 academic papers on the circular carbon economy and their references from 2010–2021 using the Citespace visualization network. The results show that research on the circular carbon economy has experienced a relatively gradual growth from 2010 to 2016, followed by an explosive growth from 2016 to 2021. Research cooperation among countries is close, forming a relatively concentrated cooperation network, while the core author group has not yet formed. Furthermore, the research on circular carbon economy strongly correlates with relevant international hotspots and national policy changes, reflecting the instrumental characteristics of circular carbon economy research. We summarized three main research topics through keywords clustering. In addition, we point out the future research directions from technical progress considering industry differences and cooperation, multiple environmental policies and legal system construction, interregional and international cooperation, etc., from an institutional research perspective. This article provides an essential and valuable reference for related research.

Eco-industrial development not only reduces pollutant emissions but also effectively addresses ecological and environmental pressures. Using panel data for 276 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2021, this study employs a Difference-in-Differences model combined with the Propensity Score Matching method to empirically examine the impact of eco-industrial development on air pollution, taking China’s National Eco-Industrial Demonstration Parks as the empirical setting. The analysis further includes robustness tests, heterogeneity analyses, and mechanism examinations focusing on green innovation and green investment. The results show that: (1) the establishment of National Eco-industrial Demonstration Parks significantly reduces PM_2.5 emissions and improves environmental quality in host cities; (2) eco-industrial development mitigates air pollution by promoting green innovation and enhancing green investments; (3) the pollution reduction effect of eco-industrial development is more pronounced in central and western cities, industrial cities, open cities, and regions with lower levels of green development.

Against the backdrop of global carbon neutrality, industrial cities, being major sources of carbon emissions, require a comprehensive analysis of their economy-wide embodied carbon-transfer mechanisms. This study focuses on Chongqing, a representative industrial city, and constructs an embodied carbon-transfer prediction and analysis by integrating a single-region, import-adjusted, non-competitive input–output model with a gray forecasting model. This approach establishes an inter-sectoral embodied carbon-transfer analytical framework encompassing three components: historical accounting, dynamic forecasting, and pathway design. Drawing on input–output tables and carbon emissions data for Chongqing from 1997 to 2020, the study quantitatively examines the dynamic evolution and future trajectory of the city’s embodied carbon transfer. The results reveal a “stepwise” growth pattern of embodied carbon transfers across sectors, alongside significant sectoral heterogeneity. The analysis precisely identifies carbon-intensive sectors such as transportation, electricity and heat production and supply, and construction, as well as high-carbon industrial chains including “electricity → chemicals → non-metallic mineral products → construction” and “electricity → electrolytic aluminum → automobile and motorcycle manufacturing.” The model projects that Chongqing’s total embodied carbon transfer will increase to 292.9 million tons by 2030. Furthermore, the evolution of embodied carbon transfers is found to be closely coupled with regional economic structural transformation, exhibiting a three-phase pattern of “high-carbon lock-in and extensive growth,” “structural adjustment and turbulence,” and “emergence of new business models.” These findings provide a scientific basis for overcoming carbon lock-in in industrial cities and for designing systemic emission-reduction pathways across sectors such as construction, transportation, and energy, as well as for formulating differentiated industry-specific carbon mitigation policies.