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Abstract Urbanization as a migratory and transformative process brings changes to human activities that make a significant contribution to climate change. Carbon emissions have been steadily increasing because of rapid world population growth. This paper attempts to formulate an impact model of urbanization on carbon emissions by offering a breakdown of urban sector drivers of emissions: residential, commercial and industrial to elucidate the dynamics of variables' interaction. The model facilitates a comparative analysis of three groups of countries namely; High Income, Upper-Middle Income, and Lower-Middle Income. Key performance indicators measuring carbon emissions in each group of countries together with the EKC model were used and indicated an inverted U-shaped function between carbon emissions and GDP per capita and a linear relationship with urbanization. Further, the analysis revealed different carbon emissions and trends because of the interaction of urban sector drivers. The paper concludes with policy implications for each group of countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]