In this study, the carbon emissions (CEs) from cultivated land (CL) were included as an undesirable output in the utilization efficiency of such land. A slack-based model was used to calculate the CL use efficiency (CLUE) for 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2007 to 2016, and then a kernel density estimation map was drawn to analyze the spatiotemporal variations of CLUE. The Tobit model was also employed to analyze the factors affecting the CLUE. The results show the following. 1) In the YREB, the CEs from CL showed a rising and then a slowly decreasing tr...