Global warming and climate change are issues that have aroused widespread attention, and the need for a transition to a low-carbon economy has become the consensus of the international community. China has become one of the world's largest energy consumers, as well as one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. This further highlights the importance and urgency of research on carbon emissions from energy consumption. Based on regional perspectives of the impacts of carbon emissions, the analysis of mechanisms responsible for carbon emissions has become an important research topic. Xinjiang, an important Chinese energy production base, is currently going through a period of strategic opportunities for rapid development. It is critical to ensure stable socioeconomic development as well as to achieve energy savings and meeting emission reductions targets, thus the harmonious development of "society- economy- energy- environment," is the key issue currently facing the region. This study, based on the input- output theory, presents a structural decomposition analysis of the factors affecting energy consumption and carbon emissions in Xinjiang from 1997-2007. This analysis employs a hybrid input- output analysis framework of "energy- economy- carbon emissions," and uses an extended IO- SDA model. The data for this study come from the Xinjiang input-output table for 1997-2002-2007. Population, economic, and energy source data are derived from the Statistical Yearbook of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (1) Xinjiang's carbon emissions from energy consumption increased from 20.70 million tons in 1997 to 40.34 million tons in 2007; carbon emissions growth was mainly concentrated in the production and processing of energy resources, the mining of mineral resources, and the processing industry. (2) The analysis of the direct effects of the influencing factors on carbon emissions shows that the change in per capita GDP, final demand structure, population scale, and production structure were the important factors causing an increase in carbon emissions, while the decrease in carbon emission intensity during this period was an important factor in stopping the growth of carbon emissions. This shows that while Xinjiang's economy and population were growing, the economic structure had not been effectively optimized and production technology had not been improved, which results in a rapid growth of carbon emissions from energy consumption. (3) An analysis of the indirect effects of the factors influencing carbon emissions shows that inter- provincial transfers, gross fixed capital formation, and consumption by urban residents had significant influence on the changes in carbon emissions from energy consumption in Xinjiang. (4) The growth of investments in fixed assets of carbon-intensive industry sectors, as well as the growth of inter-provincial transfers of energy resource products, makes the transfer effect of inter- area "implicit carbon" very significant.