The contradiction between economic growth and carbon emissions restricts the sustainable development of developing countries. Whether territorial spatial functional conflicts (TSFCs) are statistically associated with the intensification of this tension remains an important empirical question that has not been fully addressed. This study comprehensively employs multiple spatiotemporal analysis methods to analyze the spatiotemporal association between TSFC intensity and the synergy state of economic growth and carbon emissions in Sichuan Province, China, over the period 2010–2022. The results show that the territorial spatial functional conflict index (TSFCI) level has significant explanatory power for the spatial heterogeneity in both the CCD and the decoupling elasticity index (DEI) between economic growth and carbon emissions, with q-values of 0.081 and 0.023, respectively, both passing the significance test at p < 0.001. The time-stratified geographical detector results further reveal that the explanatory power of the TSFCI for the DEI reaches significant levels across all four periods (2010–2013, 2013–2016, 2016–2019, and 2019–2022), with q-values of 0.254, 0.065, 0.118, and 0.030, respectively, exhibiting pronounced phased fluctuations. These findings demonstrate, from both spatial and temporal dimensions, a substantial association between TSFCs and the synergy between economic growth and carbon emissions, with the association characterized by phased fluctuations and nonlinear features. These results provide spatiotemporal empirical evidence for the close linkage between TSFCs and economic–carbon contradictions, while the causal inference that TSFCs exacerbate the contradiction is supported only by theoretical mechanism deduction rather than direct empirical proof. Further analysis suggests that the territorial spatial governance approach of alleviating the economic–carbon contradiction by coordinating TSFCs and optimizing territorial spatial development and conservation patterns is theoretically plausible. This study provides empirical reference and theoretical implications for developing countries to mitigate the contradiction between economic growth and carbon emissions by optimizing territorial spatial development and conservation patterns.

The contradiction between economic growth and carbon emissions restricts the sustainable development of developing countries. Whether territorial spatial functional conflicts (TSFCs) are statistically associated with the intensification of this tension remains an important empirical question that has not been fully addressed. This study comprehensively employs multiple spatiotemporal analysis methods to analyze the spatiotemporal association between TSFC intensity and the synergy state of economic growth and carbon emission in Sichuan Province, China, over the period 2010–2022. The results show that the territorial spatial functional conflict index (TSFCI) level has significant explanatory power for the spatial heterogeneity of both the CCD and the decoupling elasticity index (DEI) between economic growth and carbon emission, with q-values of 0.081 and 0.023, respectively, both passing the significance test at p < 0.001. The time-stratified geographical detector results further reveal that the explanatory power of TSFCI for DEI reaches significant levels across all four periods (2010–2013, 2013–2016, 2016–2019, and 2019–2022), with q-values of 0.254, 0.065, 0.118, and 0.030, respectively, exhibiting pronounced phased fluctuations. These findings demonstrate, from both spatial and temporal dimensions, a substantial association between TSFCs and the synergy between economic growth and carbon emission, with the association characterized by phased fluctuations and nonlinear features. These results provide spatiotemporal empirical evidence for the close linkage between TSFCs and economic-carbon contradictions, while the causal inference that TSFCs exacerbate the contradiction is supported only by theoretical mechanism deduction rather than direct empirical proof. Further analysis suggests that the territorial spatial governance approach of alleviating the economic-carbon contradiction by coordinating TSFCs and optimizing territorial spatial development and conservation patterns is theoretically plausible. This study provides empirical reference and theoretical implications for developing countries to mitigate the contradiction between economic growth and carbon emission by optimizing territorial spatial development and conservation patterns.