This study describes the formulation and application of a partial coupling method that disentangles the coupling between the atmosphere and ocean and isolates the atmosphere and ocean-driven components of the coupled climate interactions. In contrast to strategies using stand-alone simulations with prescribed atmosphere or ocean states, the climate components in the partially coupled method remain coupled, but the impact of ocean circulation changes is removed from the air-sea interaction using temperature-like tracers. The partially coupled simulation thereby suppresses the ocean-driven interaction and isolates an atmosphere-driven interaction only. The ocean-driven component can be inferred by comparing climate response in the partially coupled simulation with that of a standard fully coupled one. The partial coupling approach is applied to decompose the fully coupled climate response to CO2 quadrupling into atmosphere- and ocean-driven components. The linearity of the decomposition is validated by simulating the ocean driven response using another complimentary partially coupled simulation forced only with the atmosphere-driven anomalous surface fluxes. A comparison of the two partially coupled simulations with the fully coupled simulation indicates that the sum of the atmosphere and ocean-driven components accurately describes the fully coupled response. The decomposition identifies several robust atmosphere- and ocean-driven features of global warming and provides new insights into the impacts of atmospheric feedbacks on the Atlantic overturning circulation and sea ice response to CO2 increase.