The thermal power industry serves as the backbone of China's power system. Despite a continuous decline in its share of electricity generation

it still contributed 63.2% of China's total power output in 2024

making it a primary source of atmospheric pollutants and carbon emissions. Taking 2003 as the baseline year

this paper establishes a quantitative assessment method for pollution and carbon reduction

focusing on evaluating the effectiveness of pollution and carbon mitigation in the thermal power sector from 2004 to 2024. The results show that

compared with the emission intensity of 2003

the thermal power industry achieved cumulative reductions of 151 million tonnes (Mt) of smoke and dust

426 Mt of SO2

and 228 Mt of NOx over the period. End-of-pipe treatment technologies played a significant role

with average contribution rates of 81.5%

80.1%

and 73.2%

respectively. The cumulative carbon reduction reached 13.18 billion tonnes

experiencing three distinct phases: rapid decline

moderate decline

and sustained advancement. In the future

end-of-pipe treatment will remain the dominant pathway for reducing air pollutants in the thermal power industry

and needs to be upgraded to integrated ultra-clean emission technologies for multiple pollutants. Meanwhile

in terms of carbon reduction

the potential for energy conservation and efficiency improvement is narrowing

making it urgent to achieve deep decarbonization through diversified approaches such as low-carbon fuel substitution

carbon capture

utiliazation and storage (CCUS). The key to synergistically advancing co-benefits of pollution and carbon reduction lies in achieving breakthroughs in original full-chain technologies covering source fuel substitution

system-wide intelligent optimization

and end-of-pipe treatment. This will provide solid scientific and technological support for the green

low-carbon transformation of the thermal power industry and the long-term improvement of environmental quality.