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Understanding the different impacts of urbanization on sectorial carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions at different spatial scales is of great importance for the evaluation of energy transition policies and reduction of environmental inequality. However, how urbanization affects the CO 2 emissions of central heating systems at high spatial resolution in China has not been fully studied before. Based on satellite-observed NPP-VIIRS nighttime light (NTL) data, we develop a 5 km × 5 km annual CO 2 emission inventory for coal boilers, thermal power plants (TPPs), and natural gas boilers in China's central heating systems for the period 2012–2017 by using the geographical and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model. It is observed that nonurban areas generated 2–4 times the CO 2 emissions of coal boilers in urban areas. The largest increments of CO 2 emissions of gas boilers are observed in urban areas of the eastern (6.80 times) and central regions (2.86 times) in 2013–2014, due to the clean heating policy in the "2 + 26" cities in China. The effects of urbanization on CO 2 emissions from natural gas boilers are approximately 2–3 times those of coal boilers, and the differences are largest in western cities with only minor differences in northeastern cities. Our results will aid in designing low-carbon development goals and provide micro-level information on central heating facilities in urbanized and less developed regions. Image 1 • Gridded CO 2 emissions inventory of central heating systems in 2012–2017 is developed. • The nighttime light data is used to downscale the prefecture-city level emissions. • A GTWR model is built to explore the spatio-temporal heterogeneity among cities. • City development has larger impacts on CO 2 emissions from gas-than coal-boilers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]