Taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the research object and based on the Landsat TM image interpretation data from the four periods of 2000-2015, this paper constructs a carbon emission model and analyzes the spatial and temporal differences of carbon emissions from the aspects of ecological carrying capacity, economic contribution and their coupling relationship. The results are as follows: 1) From 2000 to 2015, the regional carbon emissions of the Yangtze River Economic Belt have significant regional differences, and the carbon emissions of various cities have increased to various degrees, and the growth from the upstream to the downstream gradually increases. 2) The carbon emission of land use in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is generally positively correlated. Moran's I value decreases after increasing, positive correlation in the carbon emission intensity increases, the agglomeration state is significant and the heterogeneous spatial unit increases. The local spatial autocorrelation shows that the high value clustering center is located in the downstream coastal area and the low value is mainly distributed in the upstream and middle reaches. The lower value and higher value are distributed in the middle and lower reaches, respectively. 3) The economic contribution coefficient of carbon emission gradually reduces from the east of Yangtze River Economic Belt to the west. The ecological carrying capacity is higher in the east than the west and the lowest in the middle. Both of them show a rising trend in varying degrees, and the difference in coupling coordination is small. The difference between the middle and lower reaches is relatively larger. 4) In order to better realize the sustainable development of land use and promote the transformation of land use mode towards low-carbon and intensive development, the regulation of lowcarbon land use can be carried out in different regions.