China developed a number of comprehensive environmental observation satellites in the past 10 years, including the Gaofen-5A/B satellites, DQ-1, DQ-2 and the Gaofen-5 01A. The spectrum of the comprehensive environmental observation satellites covers from ultraviolet to longwave infrared, and the observation means of the satellites include multi-spectral, hyperspectral, polarization, multi-angle, active lidar etc. After the proposal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”, the satellites not only characterized as hyperspectral and environmental satellite, but also known as carbon monitoring abilities. In this paper, the development status of China’s comprehensive environmental observation satellites is summarized. The specifications and the applications of the carbon monitoring payloads in the environmental satellites are introduced. The shortcomings of the carbon monitoring ability of the existing environmental observation system are analyzed, and the development suggestions are given for the subsequent environmental comprehensive satellites or dedicated carbon monitoring satellites.