Abstract
Air pollution is still an important risk factor that endangers the health of Chinese people, leading the government to implement a series of policies to address air pollution. This study takes the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) proposed in 2013 as the object and uses the combined data set of China’s 2000–2019 economic panel data and PM2.5 remote sensing data to analyse the implementation effect of the policy by the multiperiod difference-in-differences method, considering regional heterogeneity. The results show that the implementation of the APPCAP significantly reduced the PM2.5 concentration in China, and the effect was stronger in the Yangtze River Delta region. Future governance policies should further consider local characteristics and determine pollution control goals and measures according to local conditions.
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00128-023-03750-4/MediaObjects/128_2023_3750_Fig1_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00128-023-03750-4/MediaObjects/128_2023_3750_Fig2_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00128-023-03750-4/MediaObjects/128_2023_3750_Fig3_HTML.png)
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cai S, Wang Y, Zhao B, Wang S, Chang X, Hao J (2017) The impact of the “Air pollution prevention and control action plan” on PM(2.5) concentrations in Jing-Jin-Ji region during 2012–2020. Sci Total Environ 580:197–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.11.188
Chen L, Xiao Q, Lan S (2021) Pollution control effects of environmental policies based on threshold effect model of industrial structure: taking the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan as an example. Resour Sci 43:341–356. https://doi.org/10.18402/resci.2021.02.12
Dong Z, Gao J, Yan X, Hao C, Ge C (2017) Assessment of Socio-Economic Impacts of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in China’s three key regions. Res Environ Sci 30:380–388
Feng L, Liao W (2016) Legislation, plans, and policies for prevention and control of air pollution in China: achievements, challenges, and improvements. J Clean Prod 112:1549–1558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.013
Han L, Sun Z, Gong T, Zhang X, He J, Xing Q, Li Z, Wang J, Ye D, Miao S (2020) Assessment of the short-term mortality effect of the national action plan on air pollution in Beijing, China. Environ Res Lett 15:034052. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab6f13
Heung-Ho H (2012) China Yangtze River Delta Regional economic integration and the development prospects. 36:111–142
Huang J, Pan X, Guo X, Li G (2018) Health impact of China’s air pollution prevention and control action plan: an analysis of national air quality monitoring and mortality data. Lancet Planet Health 2:e313–e323. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(18)30141-4
Jin Y, Andersson H, Zhang S (2016) Air pollution control policies in China: a retrospective and prospects. Int J Environ Res Public Health 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13121219
Liu J (2014) Malmquist index based Jing-Jin-Ji regional technical differences empirical study. 21st Int Conf Manag Sci Eng 1725–1731. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMSE.2014.6930442
Liu Z, Xue W, Ni X, Qi Z, Zhang Q, Wang J (2021) Fund gap to high air quality in China: a cost evaluation for PM2.5 abatement based on the air pollution prevention and control action plan. J Clean Prod 319:128715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128715
Lu XC, Lin CQ, Li WK, Chen Y, Huang YQ, Fung JCH, Lau AKH (2019) Analysis of the adverse health effects of PM2.5 from 2001 to 2017 in China and the role of urbanization in aggravating the health burden. Sci Total Environ 652:683–695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.140
Murray CJL, Aravkin AY, Zheng P et al (2020) Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2019. Lancet 396:1223–1249. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30752-2
Shi JD, Zhao D, Ren FT, Huang L (2023) Spatiotemporal variation of soil heavy metals in China: The pollution status and risk assessment. Sci Total Environ 871:161768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161768
Song Y, Li Z, Yang T, Xia Q (2020) Does the expansion of the joint prevention and control area improve the air quality? Evidence from China’s Jing-Jin-Ji region and surrounding areas. Sci Total Environ 706:136034. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136034
The State Council of China (2013) Air pollution prevention and control action plan. The State Council of China, China
Van Donkelaar A, Martin RV, Brauer M, Boys BL (2015) Use of satellite observations for long-term exposure assessment of global concentrations of fine particulate matter. Environ Health Perspect 123:135–143 KJD:ART001662759
Wang L, Watanabe T (2019) Effects of environmental policy on public risk perceptions of haze in Tianjin city: a difference-in-differences analysis. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 109:199–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.04.017
Wang B, Liu W, Lu D (2011) Allocation efficiency of science and technology resources in Jing-Jin-Ji, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta Regions. Prog Geogr 30:1233–1239. https://doi.org/10.11820/dlkxjz.2011.10.005
Yang S, Wang F, Liu N (2020) Assessment of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in China: a difference-in-difference analysis. China Popul Resour Environ 30:110–117. https://doi.org/10.12062/cpre.20191105
Yin P, Brauer M, Cohen AJ et al (2020) The effect of air pollution on deaths, disease burden, and life expectancy across China and its provinces, 1990–2017: an analysis for the global burden of disease study 2017. Lancet Planet Health 4:e386–e398. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30161-3
Yu YJ, Dai C, Wei YG, Ren HM, Zhou JW (2022) Air pollution prevention and control action plan substantially reduced PM2.5 concentration in China. Energy Econ 113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106206
Zhang MQ, Hu DY (2016) The coupling-coordination relationship between accessibility and economic linkage in Jing-Jin-Ji metropolitan area. Int Conf Logist Inform Serv Sci. https://doi.org/10.1109/LISS.2016.7854541
Zhang H, Wang J, Jiang Q, Liu C, Yan H, Zhang B, Iop (2018a) Characteristics of haze change in China since the twenty-first century. Int Conf Energy Eng Environ Prot 227:052014. 3https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/227/5/052014
Zhang NN, Ma F, Qin CB, Li YF (2018b) Spatiotemporal trends in PM2.5 levels from 2013 to 2017 and regional demarcations for joint prevention and control of atmospheric pollution in China. Chemosphere 210:1176–1184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.142
Zhang ZH, Zhang JX, Feng YC (2021) Assessment of the Carbon Emission Reduction Effect of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413307
Zhao Y, Kim B (2022) Environmental regulation and chronic conditions: evidence from China’s air pollution prevention and control action plan. Int J Environ Res Public Health 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912584
Zheng M, Yan C, Li X (2016) PM2.5 source apportionment in China. Airborne Part Matter: Sources Atmos Process Health 42:293–314. https://doi.org/10.13209/j.0479-8023.2014.068
Zhu L, Hao Y, Lu ZN, Wu H, Ran Q (2019) Do economic activities cause air pollution? Evidence from China’s major cities. Sustain Cities Soc 49:101593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101593
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Jiangsu Province (BE2022841) and the Chinese Natural Science Foundation (71921003).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Yahan Gu: Software, Formal analysis, Writing - Original Draft, Visualization. Yangyang Wu: Supervision, Writing - Review & Editing. Jiaming Wang: Conceptualization, Writing - Review & Editing. Lei Huang: Funding acquisition.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Gu, Y., Wu, Y., Wang, J. et al. Assessment of Regional Differences in the Implementation of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in China. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 110, 111 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-023-03750-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-023-03750-4