With the proposition of a “double-carbon” policy, how to reduce carbon emission through distribution network planning has become a research hotspot. Existing distribution network planning models do not consider the effect of carbon emission. To tackle this issue, a multi-stage bilevel expansion planning of a distribution network considering the carbon trading market is established. The planning layer of the model considers the planning of substations, network and DGs. The operation layer of the model considers the optimal operational strategies of the planning scheme and their operation, generation and carbon emission costs. Then, a proposed mixed integer linear programming model is analysed by modern Benders decomposition. The proposed method is applied to a typical 24-node distribution network planning case. This shows that it can effectively reduce the comprehensive cost of distribution network planning with a low-carbon objective, and is appropriate when building a higher proportion of renewable energy in the distribution network. This work is supported by the Science and Technology Project of State Grid Corporation of China (No. SGSDLY00GDJS2100788).