Abstract: To better understand boosting effects and spatial differentiation of carbon emission from various industrial plants in Xi’an, an input-output analysis model was used to calculate direct and indirect carbon emissions from the plants. In line with relevant targets with county or district as basic unit, carbon emissions from various plants were distributed spatially among counties or districts as unit. It was found that about 90% of the industrial plants had more indirect carbon emission than direct carbon emission and the carbon emission within the sector displayed strong boosting effects and context effects. Carbon emissions from manufacturing industries like general equipment, special purpose equipment and electric equipment and machinery, etc.were higher in boosting effect, leading to increased carbon emissions from the industries, like thermo-power production thermo-power supplying, metal smelting, rolling processing, petroleum refining and  coke making, etc.. In Xi’an, the spatial distribution of carbon emissions from 6 major representative industries showed that Weiyang, Huxian and Yanta were priority districts for carbon emission reduction. In Xi’an City, the pulling effect of industrial carbon emission displayed a decreasing trend in geometrical progression from the innermost of the city to circumference of the city. The findings could serve as reference for policy-makers to determine responsibility each industrial sector should undertake for reduction of carbon emission. It is also helpful to the construction of a low-carbon city and realization of industrial upgrading in Xi’an City.

Key words: Input-output model, indirect carbon emission, boosting effect, spatial differentiation, Xi’an City