Rigorous Regional Air Quality Standards for Substantial Health Benefits

Abstract Following a series of actions in China, the annual mean fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations have considerably reduced since 2013. However, in some cities, the PM2.5 concentrations exceed the national ambient air quality standard of 35 μg/m3. Herein, we evaluated the historical trends of PM2.5 from 2014 to 2022 in mainland China and found continuously declining trends. However, the annual decline rates decreased despite increasing investments on pollution control, showing considerably diminishing marginal effects of these investments. Accumulative reduction in PM2.5 concentrations is linearly dependent on the log‐transformed accumulative investment in air pollution control. The standard of 35 μg/m3 can be achieved by 2035 if the current efforts continue at the same pace. However, the standard of 35 μg/m3 can weaken the momentum of future actions in cities where the standard has already been implemented. We proposed and tested two tiers with four or six levels of specific regional standards based on the regression model predictions from the historical data and demonstrated that more rigorous standards for regions where the current standard is already attained could provide more momentum for strengthening abatement efforts. The results show that both tiers are feasible if the level of abatement endeavor is maintained even with marginal effects. We also demonstrate that additional 135,000 or 384,000 deaths can be avoided by applying the regional standards. Health benefits are monetized and compared with the control costs, suggesting that compared to Tier‐2, Tier‐1 is more cost‐effective and balanced across the mainland China.