Abstract: Understanding on air pollutant emissions and the influencing factors is an important basis to guide the regional emission reduction to achieve a sustainable development. In the paper, the Tapio analysis model was used to measure the decoupling degree between industrial economic growth and three indexes, including industrial exhaust gas, industrial sulfur dioxide and industrial smoke dust in 11 provinces of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 1996 to 2013. The LMDI decomposition model was used to decompose the influencing factors of air pollutant emission characteristics. The results show that: (1) The industrial emissions from all provinces in the Yangtze River Economic Belt showed a continuous upward trend, and the “hot” areas of industrial emissions mainly concentrated in the eastern region. The total emissions of industrial sulfur dioxide and smoke dust showed a “first increase and then decrease” trend, implying an improved recent situation. (2) The total industrial emissions in Yangtze River Economic Belt experienced a transformation trend from the expansionary negative decoupling to relative decoupling. It shows that, with the development of the economy, industrial pollution caused by industrial emissions increased simultaneously during this period. The economic development effect and the energy efficiency effect are the main factors to promote the emission of industrial waste gas. (3) The industrial sulfur dioxide and smoke dust emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt have experienced the trend of development from relative decoupling to absolute decoupling. Economic development is the main reason leading to the increase of the two kinds of pollutants in each region. However, technical efficiency and energy efficiency are the two important ways to reduce the two pollutants emission in these areas. In the future, it is therefore necessary to strengthen the adjustment of industrial structure and energy structure in the process of emission reduction control of air pollutants. Meanwhile, we must firmly rely on technological progress to promote the improvement of energy efficiency and pay attention to the differences of reduce emissions among different provinces and prevent the regional transfer of pollution industries. Key words：Yangtze River Economic Belt; economic growth; atmospheric environment; decoupling analysis model; LMDI decomposition model