As the global warming problem is increasingly serious,it has caused widespread concern in the international community.As one of regional development"three strategies" in China,Yangtze River Economic Belt is facing severe pressure to reduce carbon emission.This paper used carbon dioxide emissions as a measure index to analyze the time and space character from 1998 to 2012 in Yangtze River Economic Belt,and applied spatial panel models on carbon emission to analyze the impact of industrial structure, total population,economic level,technical level and urbanization level on carbon emission in this area.The results showed that:① The absolute difference in carbon emissions was increasing,while the relative difference was changing in a fluctuation;the correlation between carbon emissions and per capita GDP(1997 constant prices)was weak.② The region of higher carbon emissions centered at Jiangsu,and gradually spread to the surrounding,and the spatial pattern of carbon emission is relatively stable.③ The spatial panel model results showed that:total population is the determinant factor followed by economic level,technical level and urbanization level influencing the spatial evolution of carbon emission in this area.