Climate change is a global threat and poses significant risks to sustainable livelihoods, which require immediate attention. Several review papers have highlighted the nexus between climate change and sustainable livelihoods in recent years. Still lacking, nevertheless, is a thorough bibliometrics analysis of the topic. Accordingly, the main objective of this study is to fill this gap by advancing our understanding of the previous research. For this purpose, we analyzed 1411 articles indexed in Scopus between 2004 and 2023 using Bibliometric R and VOSviewer, two commonly used software tools for science mapping and bibliometrics analysis. This study employed a bibliometric analysis to explore the research trends, collaboration network, and thematic evaluation of papers on climate change and sustainable livelihood. The results show that, despite a consistent increase in research since 2007, the trends accelerated with the publication of the 2018 report on the assessment of climate change and sustainable livelihood. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research leads in productivity, while the USA, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are the most productive countries. The results offer an improved comprehension of the changing body of knowledge about climate change and sustainable livelihood research and point to new areas for investigation, making the findings a valuable resource for scholars, decision-makers, and practitioners.