Urban agglomeration, an established urban spatial pattern, contributes to the spatial association and dependence of city-level CO 2 emission distribution while boosting regional economic growth. Exploring this spatial association and dependence is conducive to the implementation of effective and coordinated policies for regional level CO 2 reduction. This study calculated CO 2 emissions from 2005-2016 in the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration with the IPAT model, and empirically explored the spatial structure pattern and association effect of CO 2 across the area leveraged by the social network analysis. The findings revealed the following: (1) The spatial structure of CO 2 emission in the area is a complex network pattern, and in the sample period, the CO 2 emission association relations increased steadily and the network stabilization remains strengthened; (2) the centrality of the cities in this area can be categorized into three classes: Chengdu and Chongqing are defined as the first class, the second class covers Deyang, Mianyang, Yibin, and Nanchong, and the third class includes Zigong, Suining, Meishan, and Guangan-the number of cities in this class is on the rise; (3) the network is divided into four subgroups: the area around Chengdu, south Sichuan, northeast Sichuan, and west Chongqing where the spillover effect of CO 2 is greatest; and (4) the higher density of the global network of CO 2 emission considerably reduces regional emission intensity and narrows the differences among regions. Individual networks with higher centrality are also found to have lower emission intensity.