In recent years，peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality are gaining increasing recognition and consensus on a global scale. Civil aviation is an important part and pillar of global economic and trade activities. At the same time，civil aviation is a highly transnational source of carbon emissions. Hence，close coordination and cooperation between countries are indispensable for achieving emissions reduction targets in this sector. Given the outstanding achievements of Italian civil aviation sector in energy conservation and emissions reduction，and coping with climate change and pursuing sustainable development are the key direction of cooperation between China and Italy，this article intends to make a comparative study on the pathways of carbon emissions reduction of civil aviation sectors between China and Italy，and tries to explore the cooperation prospects of sustainable development of civil aviation sectors between the two countries. The analysis shows that in spite of differences in development stages and concrete challenges，Chinese and Italian civil aviation sectors are both moving faster to tap the core role of technological innovation in driving carbon neutrality，and leverage the market mechanism to ensure cost-effective energy conservation and emissions reduction. Under these two common pathways，the prospects of cooperation in sustainable development between China and Italy are quite broad.