Research on Changing characteristics of carbon emissions and their driving factors in provincial areas are significant for carbon emission control and reduction policies' formulation. In this paper, the changing feature of total carbon emissions, carbon emissions per capita, carbon emissions of three types of primary energy, and the change of emission structure and emission efficiency of Jiangsu province from 1987 to 2008 are comprehensively analysed. The research shows: (1) carbon emissions in Jiangsu province keeps on increasing in the past 20 years and obviously divide into several phases; (2) carbon emissions in coal consumption takes the largest proportion of the total carbon emission, leading the change of carbon emissions; carbon emissions in oil consumption takes a small part and changes mildly; Carbon emissions in natural gas consumption are very few. (3) Carbon emission intensity keeps on decreasing while the energy efficiency increasing in the past 20 years.