CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel use are the most dominant part of Greenhouse GAS (GHG) emission, which is foundation of GHG inventory and GHG mitigation strategy. In this paper, inventory accounting method, terminal energy consumption accounting method (include electricity & heat terminal method and embodied CO₂ terminal method) were applied to estimate the CO₂ emission of energy consumption activities in China, and the distribution in sectors as well as emissions intense of sectors were evaluated. The accounting results were compared to explain the properties and applications of three methods. Furthermore, the sectors contributions of economic growth and carbon intensity to the increasing of CO₂ emission in China were analyzed. The results show that total CO₂ emissions accounted by embodied terminal energy consumption method are 6.56 billion tons in 2009, slightly more than the amount by another two methods that is 6.22 billion tons. CO₂ emission distribution in sectors and emission intensity of sectors are different significantly by the three accounting methods. The main sectors of direct CO₂ emission by inventory method is electricity & heat generation sector, accounting for 45.2%, while only accounting for 4.5% by electricity & heat terminal method. Manufacturing is the main sector of energy consumption which accounting for 35.3%, 61.1% and 65.5% by inventory method, electricity & heat terminal method and embodied CO₂ terminal method. By electricity & heat terminal method, top three CO₂ emission intensity sectors are manufacturing, electricity and heat generation, transportation, which is 21.66, 17.2 and 16.22 tCO₂/1000RMB respectively. In manufacturing sector, top five industries, such as ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry, non-metallic mineral production industry, contribute 52.4% emissions with the 9.8% economic growth. They are key industries for GHG mitigation by taking technology innovation and implementing mitigation projects. Services industry emits 9.8% CO₂, while contributes 38.4% economic growth. It should be priority development industry of low carbon economic in China.