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• Distribution effect of carbon-food nexus for Chinese cities were explored. • Several methods built using the spatial decoupling index were proposed. • Chinese cities exhibited varying degrees of the distribution effect over the period. • Driver pattern of carbon-food nexus has changed over the years. Climate change mitigation and food security are sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Despite extensive studies focused on the nexus of different SDGs and corresponding mechanisms, the distribution effect of carbon-food nexus and its driver has received limited attention, hindering policy making for balancing pathways of regional emission reduction and food production improvement. The present study explored the distribution effect (i.e., spatial performance) of carbon-food nexus from multiple perspectives (namely, status quo, drivers, and trend) based on a unique city-level dataset from 2005 to 2017. To this end, we proposed the spatial decoupling index, the corresponding decomposition and nonparametric models for capturing the multi-perspective distribution effects. The results indicated that Chinese cities, categorized by population scale and economic structure, exhibited varying degrees of distributions of carbon-food nexus over the period. Moreover, the driver pattern of carbon-food nexus was noted to have changed, wherein investment efficiency and scale were positive drivers. Furthermore, we showed that a more developed city's economy was statistically significantly associated with higher carbon emission and lower food production. Therefore, related stakeholders should take more actions such as strengthening capital accumulation and joint management of carbon intensity, for improving the distribution effect of the overall city-level carbon-food nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]