[Objective] In order to investigate variations of carbon emission in response to land use changes,this paper analyzed carbon emission influence by land use change taking Hongdong County, Shanxi Province as example on county scale.[Methods] The land use data was obtained based on the interpretation of the remote sensing image of Hongdong County in 2000, 2010 and 2013. And the carbon effect caused by different change of land use about Hongdong County in 13 years was estimated by adopting the carbon emission estimation model.[Results] The carbon emissions presented the trend of increased year by year in Hongdong County and the net carbon emissions was increased 6.12×10⁵ t from 2000 to 2013. As the major carbon source and carbon sinks, forest and construction land were in the state of growth, while the carbon emissions caused by construction land far beyond forest carbon absorption. The net carbon emissions space difference change was obvious in each township in the 13 years.[Conclusion] Optimizing the structure of land use can effectively reduce carbon emissions.