<p>Coastal areas foster international trade cooperation and drive global economic growth. Nevertheless, they also constitute highly vulnerable zones in the face of global climate change. Frequently, the pursuit of economic progress is accompanied by substantial greenhouse gas emissions, posing a significant threat to the ecological integrity of these regions. As global awareness of environmental protection resurfaces, striking a delicate balance between coastal economic development and safeguarding local environmental measures has emerged as a pressing concern. In order to strengthen the construction of ecological civilization in the ocean and its coastal areas, this paper analyzes the coastal provinces in Chinese Mainland and discusses the five major driving factors of carbon emissions. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method was used to decompose the factors affecting regional carbon emissions. The Theil index analysis method identifies three typical regional objects’ core driving factors and regional carbon emission characteristics. We find that the Yangtze River Delta region has maintained a prolonged minimal level of intra-regional disparity (Tpi &lt; 0.03), indicating advanced economic integration and convergent patterns in trade and emissions. The Bohai Rim region (BRR) exhibited significant fluctuations in its intra-regional disparity (Tpi), with a value of 0.18 recorded in 2003 (based on SDFT analysis) and reaching 0.35 in 2016 (based on per capita GDP analysis). Under the influence of trade and, per capita GDP and other factors, the internal difference (TWR) between the three regions is higher than the difference (TBR) among the three regions. Carbon emissions will present prominent regional characteristics, while under the influence of population and energy and other factors, it is the opposite.</p> Graphical abstract <p>The difference analysis of the influence factors of carbon emission on regions</p>