<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> As the world's largest developing country, China undergoes the ever-increasing demand for electricity during the past few decades. In 1996, China launched the Green Lights Program (GLP), which becomes a national energy conservation activity for saving lighting electricity, as well as an effective reduction of the coal consumption for power generation. Despite of the great success of the GLP, its effects on haze pollution have not been investigated and well understood. This study focused to assess the potential coal-saving induced by the GLP and to estimate the consequent improvements of the haze pollutions in the North China Plain (NCP), because severe haze pollutions often occur in the NCP and a large amount of power plants locate in this region. The estimated potential coal-saving induced by the GLP can reach a massive value of 120&#8211;323 million tons, accounting for 6.7&#8211;18.0&#8201;% of the total coal consumption for thermal power generation in China. In December 2015, there was a massive potential emission reduction of air pollutants from thermal power generation in the NCP, which was estimated to be 20.0&#8211;53.8&#8201;Gg for NOx and 6.9&#8211;18.7&#8201;Gg for SO<sub>2</sub>. The potential emission reductions induced by the GLP played important roles in the haze formation, because the NOx and SO<sub>2</sub> are important precursors for the formation of particles. To assess the impact of the GLP on haze pollution, sensitive studies were conducted by applying a regional chemical/dynamical model (WRF-CHEM). The model results suggest that in the lower limit case of emission reduction, the PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration decreases by 2&#8211;5&#8201;&#181;g&#8201;m<sup>&#8722;3</sup> in large areas of the NCP. In the upper limit case of emission reduction, there was much more remarkable decrease in PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration (4&#8211;10&#8201;&#181;g&#8201;m<sup>&#8722;3</sup>). This study is a good example to illustrate that scientific innovation can induce important benefits on environment issues, such as haze pollution.</p>