On the basis of defining the research scope of the Qinhe River Basin and analyzing the trend characteristics of carbon emissions in the Qinhe River Basin, the Tapio decoupling model was used to analyze the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and water resource utilization. The LMDI model was used to analyze the main driving factors of carbon emissions. The results show that the overall carbon emissions in the Qinhe River Basin show a fluctuating upward trend, but the fluctuation of carbon emission growth rate decreases. The carbon emissions and water resource utilization in the Qinhe River Basin have been in a state of strong negative decoupling and expanded negative decoupling in the most of the time.The gradual emergence of strong and weak decoupling states indicates that the relationship between water and carbon was gradually improved. Water resource utilization effect and carbon emission intensity effect are the main factors driving the increase of carbon emissions in the Qinhe River Basin, while the water efficiency effect is the main factor driving the reduction of carbon emissions. The driving effects of carbon emission intensity effect and water supply structure effect gradually become more significant.