Abstract: Amid the "new normal" of economic development, China's urbanization has entered a critical period that is shifting gear from an development model that emphasized scale and speed to a more intensive one emphasizing quality and efficiency, and promoting green circular and low-carbon development of city has become the three major paths for achieving the new requirement of "all-round improvement of urbanization quality". Firstly, this paper analyzes the historical nodes, development facts, the core concepts and their internal relations of high-quality oriented development of low-carbon city. And then, from the perspective of sustainable development, an analytical framework of "efficiency-equity-quality" is developed, which could well explain the theoretical connotation and policy mechanism of low-carbon city that pursue a high-quality oriented development pattern. It is concluded that promoting the high-quality oriented development of low carbon cities enriches the way to realize the new type of urbanization with Chinese characteristics. Focusing on the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life in the process of urbanization, the key to promote the transformation of high-quality oriented low-carbon city development lies in the following three aspects:(1)reforms should be made to improve quality, boost efficiency and upgrade the driving force of low-carbon city development, so as to improve the carbon productivity of the urban economic system and the level of human development of urban resident; (2) forming green and low-carbon spatial patterns, industrial structures, production and consumption modes, as well as urban construction and operation modes that are resource-saving and environmental-friendly, so as to meet the ever-growing needs of people for a better life; (3)taking a low-carbon path to promote the high-quality oriented evolution of low-carbon city development patterns, accelerate the transformation of urbanization, transforming and upgrading the urbanization economy by innovation, and vigorously promoting social harmony and progress.