Investigating CO2 emissions of China's manufacturing centers contributes to local and global CO2 mitigation targets. This study considers Jiangsu Province as a representation of manufacturing centers in South China. Effects of material efficiency improvements, technology development, consumption structure changes and consumption volume growth in Jiangsu Province on its CO2 emissions during 1997–2007 are investigated using structural decomposition analysis based on environmental input–output table. In order to reduce CO2 emissions, Jiangsu Province should not only rely on material efficiency improvements and technology development, but also rely on consumption structure changes. For consumption structure changes in detail, Jiangsu Province should not only focus on fixed capital formation and urban residential consumption, but also focus on international and intranational imports and exports. For the implementation of material efficiency improvements and technology development, Jiangsu Province should focus on technology innovation and international technology transfer. For the implementation of consumption structure changes, Jiangsu Province should mainly focus on identified sectors for each separate final demand category: five sectors for urban residential consumption, three sectors for fixed capital formation, four sectors for international exports, five sectors for intranational exports, three sectors for international imports and four sectors for intranational imports.
