Olefins are important platform chemicals widely used in industry. In terms of the short supply of oil resources, natural gas and coal are two significant alternative feedstocks. In this paper, energy consumption and GHG emissions of olefins production are analysed with life cycle assessment methods. Results showed the energy consumption and GHG emissions of natural gas-to-olefins are roughly equivalent to those of oil-to-olefins, while coal-to-olefins suffers from higher energy consumption and serious GHG emissions, including 5793 kg eq. CO2/t olefins of direct emissions and 5714 kg eq. CO2/t olefins of indirect emissions. To address the problem, the effect of carbon capture on coal-to-olefins is investigated. In comprehensive consideration of energy utilization, environmental impact, and economic benefit, the coal-to-olefins with SO% CO2 capture of the direct emissions is found to be an appropriate choice. With this carbon capture configuration, the direct emissions of the coal-to-olefins are reduced to 1161 kg eq. CO2/t olefins. However, the indirect emissions are still not captured, which should be strictly monitored and significantly reduced. Finally, a scenario analysis is conducted to estimate resource utilization and GHG emissions of olefins production of China in 2020. Several suggestions are also proposed for policy making on the sustainable development of olefins industry. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.