The rapid economic development has caused a continuous increase in carbon emissions, which has led to a series of problems such as environmental pollution and climate change, resulting in a decline in economic, ecological and social welfare. The increase in human well-being generated by each unit of carbon emissions can be expressed in terms of well-being performance of carbon emissions. Based on provincial panel data from 2005 to 2020 in China, this paper provides an in-depth exploration of the impact of the rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure on the well-being performance of carbon emissions by constructing a fixed-effect model. The conclusions of the study are as follows: (1) The rationalization of industrial structure at this stage has not yet had an impact on well-being performance of carbon emissions, and upgrading can significantly contribute to the improvement of well-being performance of carbon emissions. (2) the impact of industrial structure upgrading on well-being performance of carbon emissions is heterogeneous. Advancedization only significantly contributes to the well-being performance of carbon emissions of eastern regions, regions with low natural resource endowments, regions with high external dependence and regions with high environmental awareness. The conclusion of the paper provides an important reference for other countries to optimize the industrial structure to improve well-being performance.