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As a key policy tool for China' s achievement of the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, the carbon emissions trading mechanism has attracted widespread attention for its effect on reducing pollution and carbon emissions. This study incorporated carbon dioxide reduction and environmental pollution control into the same research framework. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019, it took the carbon emissions trading mechanism as the policy background and used the improved entropy weight TOPSIS model to calculate the environmental pollution index to measure the local environmental quality and environmental pollution degree. The intersection term of carbon emissions and environmental pollution index was used to characterize the level of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. The difference-in-differences model and the synthetic control method were used to empirically test the pollution and carbon emission reduction effects of the carbon emissions trading mechanism. The results showed that: (1) From the perspective of the average treatment effect of the policy, the carbon emissions trading mechanism reduced the emissions of carbon dioxide and environmental pollutants in the pilot provinces compared with non-pilot provinces. After adding relevant control variables, the level of pollution and carbon reduction in the pilot provinces increased by 16%. From the perspective of the policy effects of pilot individuals, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing performed better; that is, their carbon emissions showed a significant downward trend, followed by Guangdong, while Hubei performed worse. (2) The influential mechanisms and heterogeneity test revealed that the carbon emissions trading system achieved an increase in the synergistic governance level of pollution and carbon reduction through energy consumption restructuring and technological innovation. (3) Meanwhile, the pollution and carbon reduction levels showed regional heterogeneity, with the eastern and western regions performing best and the central region performing poorly. Furthermore, a grey correlation model was used to investigate the relationship between the pollution and carbon reduction levels and the potential for synergistic emission reduction in each province. The results found that the average correlation degree of Shanghai, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Xinjiang was greater than other provinces, showing a higher level and potential. Therefore, it is necessary to accelerate and improve the construction of the national carbon emissions trading market; give full play to the synergistic emissions reduction effects of market-based carbon emissions trading policies on carbon dioxide emissions and environmental pollutants; and accelerate the synergy of carbon emissions trading policies by increasing investment in technological innovation and the transformation and upgrading of energy consumption structures and formulating regionally differentiated carbon emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]