This paper studies the impact of foreign direct investment, outward foreign direct investment and international trade to carbon emissions in China. The empirical results show that foreign direct investment and outward foreign direct investment help reduce carbon emissions in China both in regional and industrial panel data, while export increases carbon emissions. However, the influence of open economy on carbon emissions in different regions and industries shows different characteristics. Regional differences in carbon emissions reflect the development level of local economy and leading industry-related, in addition,industrial characteristics also determin the level of carbon emissions. Based on these findings, the government should improve environmental protection standards, monitor the implementation of corporate compliance so as to improve the domestic environment, and intensify efforts to restructure the economy, urge the region to achieve industrial upgrading as soon as possible, while at the same time improve the efficiency of stringent environmental management policies on high-emission types of trades, and encourage enterprises to reduce emissions through improving production technology.