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Air pollution significantly impacts sustainable development and public health. Taking the implementation of China's Environmental Protection Tax Law in China as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper employs the difference-in-differences (DID) and spatial DID models to evaluate the effects of environmental tax reform on urban air pollution. The findings are as follows. (1) Environmental tax reform can significantly reduce urban air pollution, and a series of robustness tests have also been conducted to provide further evidence. (2) Green technology innovation and industrial structure upgrading from a vital transmission mechanism for environmental tax reform to improve air quality. (3) Environmental tax reform significantly inhibits urban air pollution in cities located north of the Qinling-Huaihe line and big cities. (4) Moreover, environmental tax reform not only promotes the improvement of local air quality but also has a significant negative spatial spillover effect, reducing air pollution in neighboring cities. The research conclusions provide theoretical support and policy suggestions for promoting sustainable economic development, rationally optimizing environmental protection tax policies and improving urban air quality.

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Residents' health is the basic condition for economic and social development. At present, China's environmental pollution problem is becoming increasingly serious, which not only hinders sustainable economic and social development, but also poses a major threat to public health. Therefore, based on the carbon emissions trading policy implemented in China, this paper explores this policy's impact on residents' health using the DID model and illustrates the moderating effect of environmental pollution. The results show that (1) carbon emissions trading policies can promote the improvement of residents' health; (2) the effect is stronger for western regions and provinces with smaller population sizes after taking control variables into consideration; and (3) environmental pollution has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between carbon emissions trading and residents' health. This research serves as an important reference for expanding the scope of the policy pilot, reducing pollutant emissions, and improving the health of the population.