The CO2 emissions of energy consumption were calculated and analyzed according to the reference approach provided by IPCC in China’s thirty provinces (excluding Tibet) from 1997 to 2012. Based on this, using the method of LMDI decomposition, the effects of CO2 emission in China’s provinces were decomposed into six influencing effects, namely population size effect, economic development effects, energy intensity effect, energy structure effect, urban-rural population structure effect and per capita energy consumption effect. Also the driving forces of carbon emissions from energy consumption in the four provinces of Jiangsu, Henan, Inner Mongolia and Chongqing were empirically decomposed. The results showed that: Both the amount of carbon emissions and per capita carbon emissions in China’s provinces exhibite an upward trend over the period from 1997 to 2012, but the increase ranges in China’s provinces are significantly different; The obvious differences in CO2 emissions intensities are found in China’s provinces. The provinces in descending order of carbon emission intensity are the western provinces, the central provinces and the eastern provinces. The intensities of carbon emissions in other provinces of China showed a declining trend except in three provinces of Qinghai, Ningxia and Hainan; Economic development, population size and urbanization level had the positive effect on carbon emissions, and energy intensity and energy structure are negative effect. Among them, economic development had the strongest positive impact on carbon emissions; energy intensity effect had the strongest negative effect on carbon emissions. The proportion of rural population, the energy consumption per capita of urban and rural areas had limited impacts on the increase of CO2 emission and exhibited weak positive and negative fluctuation effects on carbon emissions. Keywords: carbon emissions; LMDI method; energy consumption; factors decomposition; China's provinces