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The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is one of the most important areas for the economic growth of China, but rapid development has caused tremendous damage to the energy and ecological environments of the region. Very few studies have compared the carbon emissions of YREB with that of non-YREB and furthermore, have not considered regional differences and radial or non-radial characteristics in their analysis. This paper thus selects the energy consumption data of 19 provinces and cities in YREB and 19 provinces and cities in non-YREB from 2013 to 2016, constructs the modified meta-frontier Epsilou-based measure (EBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and adds an undesirable factor, energy consumption, and CO2 emission efficiency of each province and city of the two regions. The results are as follows. (1) China’s provinces and cities have different energy efficiency scores in energy consumption, economic growth, and CO2 emissions. The regional ranks and technology gaps of five provinces and cities in non-YREB and of four provinces and cities in YREB exhibit a decline. Overall, the ranks and technology gaps of the provinces and cities in YREB are significantly lower than those in non-YREB, meaning that there is greater room for efficiency improvement in the latter region. (2) The gross domestic product (GDP) and CO2 efficiency values of non-YREB provinces present great differences, especially the CO2 efficiency value that ranges from 0.2 to 1, while their values in YREB are more balanced with little difference between provinces and cities. Thus, YREB is more coordinated in terms of energy savings and air pollutant reduction. (3) Some cities with good economic development such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin have regional and technology gap values of one, indicating that they not only target economic growth but also address energy savings and air pollutant reduction. The regional rank and technology gap values of some underdeveloped provinces such as Neimenggu, Ningxia, and Qinghai are also one. Finally, this research proposes countermeasures and recommendations to both areas.

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With the rapid development of its economy, environmental governance is becoming more important in China. The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), as the world’s largest inland shipping channel, can lead the country’s regional green economy development. As most research on China’s environmental efficiency focuses on provinces or the east and west regions, this paper examines its energy input and output and environmental effects from the aspects of YREB and non-YREB, breaking through the limitations of previous studies that only used cross-section or panel data for environmental assessment. This paper employs the meta-frontier dynamic SBM model, selects fixed assets as carry-over indicators, and considers the interrelationships between the dynamics variables during 2014–2016. The results are as follows: The overall energy efficiency and CO2 emission efficiency of YREB are higher than those of non-YREB. The difference in energy consumption, CO2, and AQI efficiency is large, but the performance of YREB is generally better than that of non-YREB. After setting the meta-frontier, non-YREB is better than YREB, for the main reason that the technology gap values of YREB are smaller than those of non-YREB. Our findings thus suggest that YREB should strengthen technical exchanges and promotion within its region, thereby decreasing regional technology differences, while non-YREB should address environment protection and CO2 emissions and advocate a low-carbon production mode.