Research on Evolution and Recommendations of China’s PM2.5 and O3 Pollution Control Policies under the Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Targets

In recent years, the issue of PM2.5 and O3 pollution in China has gradually become a hot topic in air pollution control. Powerful, precise, and clear policies are important to guide the efficient control of PM2.5 and O3 pollution. However, research on PM2.5 and O3 pollution policies is very limited. Moreover, these reports have failed to identify all the specific characteristics of the PM2.5 and O3 pollution policies in China, leading to inefficient control of PM2.5 and O3 pollution. Therefore, based on the external features and internal structures of relevant policy documents, this paper conducts a detailed bibliometric analysis to elucidate the evolution of PM2.5 and O3 pollution control policies in China. The results reveal the following: (1) The PM2.5 and O3 pollution control policies in China exhibit a characteristic of “top-down cross-level response lag”, transitioning from individual pollutant control to coordinated control of PM2.5 and O3 pollution. (2) The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment have been the two major policy issuers in China’s government, focusing on “Technology” and “Monitoring”, respectively. However, the aforementioned policies are mainly implemented by local governments, with limited interregional cooperation but an overemphasis on enterprise pollution control and emergency systems. (3) In terms of policy instruments, supply- and environment-oriented policy instruments are predominant, whereas demand-oriented policy instruments are inadequate. Therefore, it is suggested to utilize the synergistic effect of pollution reduction and carbon mitigation to achieve the goal of the “dual carbon” strategy, enhance public participation to strengthen cooperation among diverse stakeholders, strengthen cross-regional cooperation to overcome governance barriers, and reasonably optimize the use of policy instruments to form an effective combination of policy instruments.