A CO2 emission intensity analysis in the Mexican industry from 1965 to 2010 is carried out by taking into consideration four stages: 1965-1982, 1982-1994, 1994-2003, and 2004-2010. Based on the LMDI decomposition methodology, three influencing factors are analyzed: energy intensity, CO2 coefficient, and structure in terms of their contributions of each individual attributes to the overall percent change of them as it was proposed in Choi and Ang (2011). The energy intensity effect was the driving factor behind the main decreases of CO2 intensity, the CO2 coefficient effect contributed to less extent to mitigate it, and the structure effect tended to increased it. It is observed that CO2 intensity declined by 26.2% from 1965 to 2003, but it increased by 10.1% from 2004 to 2010. In addition, the move of Mexico from an economic model based on import-substitution to an export-oriented economy brought more importance to the Mexican industry intended to export, thus maintaining high levels of activity of industries such as cement, iron and steel, chemical, and petrochemical, while industries such as automotive, and 'other' industries grown significantly not only as far their energy consumptions and related CO2 emissions but they also increased their contributions to the national economy. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.