Abstract: With the Tapio decoupling model， this paper focuses on the relation between the economic growth and the carbon dioxide emissions in Gansu province， taking the decoupling level of carbon dioxide as a measure of low-carbon economy development. At first， according to the calculation method of carbon dioxide improved by Xu Guoquan and others， we have calculated the carbon dioxide emission of typical economic sectors from 1994 to 2008 in Gansu province. Through this we can prove that the research of the economic development and the decoupling of carbon dioxide can be replaced by the one of the industrial economic growth and the decoupling of carbon dioxide. Based on this conclusion， the author analyses the relation between the added value of industrial economy and the carbon dioxide emission in Gansu， employing the Tapio decoupling indicator， the result of which can be seen as the fact that there is a weak decoupling between the carbon dioxide emissions status and the GDP of the national economy’s pillar industries in Gansu. This paper formulates a research paradigm for the low-carbon economy development in the underdeveloped western region with the heavy industry as the main body structure for the first time.