With the increasingly serious global carbon emission problem, how to reduce carbon emissions has attracted a great deal of attention from academics and practitioners. Carbon emissions can be decreased more efficiently by coordinating the management of firms upstream and downstream in the supply chain, which has an increasingly important role in the low carbon process. Research on the low carbon supply chain (LCSC) has gradually evolved into important branches of global sustainable development. This paper aims to conduct a complete thematic analysis of 754 articles published between 2012 and 2021, identify the structural dimensions of evolution, and classify them according to systematic methodology. It provides a stage-by-stage summary of relevant research results from the past decade. At present, research in the LCSC field has resulted in a complete theoretical framework and research system and has formed the evolutionary path of method-policy-practice research. This study will help to promote further in-depth study of the LCSC and the fabrication and improvement of its theoretical system. It provides a valuable reference for researchers interested in LCSC, and points out the focus and direction of future research.