The inter-regional trade is accompanied by carbon transfer. Therefore, on the one hand, assessing ecologically unequal exchange in interregional trade is an important part of formulating the responsibility allocation mechanism for carbon emission reduction. On the other hand, exploring the driving factors of consumption carbon emissions would help local governments formulate targeted carbon emission reduction policies. Focusing on domestic value chain fragmentation, taking China's multi regional input-output tables in 2012, 2015 and 2017, this study not only introduces the pollution terms of trade and the inter-regional environmental inequality index to analyze the regional carbon unequal exchange in China, but also decomposes the driving factors of consumption-side carbon transfer and net carbon transfer in various regions of China. The main findings are as follows. (1) Trade has led to inter-regional carbon and value added transfer, with the more developed eastern coastal region having an absolute advantage, whereas the middle Yellow River, which is deep in the ‘resource trap’, is at an absolute environmental and economic disadvantage. (2) The ecologically unequal exchange between regions is serious. It shows a clear trend of ‘strong in the east and south, weak in the west and north’. The eastern and southern coasts, middle Yangtze River, and southwest are in a favorable trade position, whereas the northeast, northern coast, middle Yellow River, and northwest are in an unfavorable situation of trade pollution. (3) The analysis of the decomposition results shows that the production structure and carbon emission intensity are important drivers to reduce China's carbon emissions, while the continuous rise of the per capita consumption demand is the biggest resistance. This study not only provides reference and suggestions for Chinese policy makers to reasonably allocate regional carbon emission reduction targets, but also provides research ideas for other developing economies in the period of rapid rise to reasonably calculate regional carbon emissions.