Abstract: To explore the impact of land resource misallocation on carbon emissions and its regional variations, this study constructed a system GMM model and a two-way fixed effect model based on the panel data from Chinese provinces from 2009 to 2020 (excluding data from Xizang Autonomous Region, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), and analyze the dynamic effects of land resource misallocation on carbon emissions and the underlying mechanism. The results show that: (1) Land resource misallocation significantly increases carbon emissions. A 1% increase in the degree of land resource misallocation leads to a 0.462% rise in carbon emissions in the long run. The impact effects of the first, second, and third lag periods are significant at 5%, 1% and 5%, respectively. (2) The rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure serve as mediating factors in the relationship between land resource misallocation and carbon emissions. (3) Compared to the eastern and central regions, the role of land resource misallocation in promoting carbon emissions in the western region is more significant. (4) Market segmentation plays a positive moderating role between land resource misallocation and carbon emissions, with the moderating effects ranked in the following order: commodity market> capital market > labor market. Therefore, local governments should avoid the short-sighted practice of ‘using land for development’, reduce excessive or inefficient interventions in land resource allocation, promote the upgrading of regional industrial structures, and fully leverage the decisive role of market mechanism in the allocation of land resources.