In 2010, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly formulated the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting Joint Prevention and Control of Air Pollution and Improving Regional Air Quality”. For the first time, the prevention and control of VOCs was listed as an important part of joint prevention and control of air pollution.

At the end of 2012, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control in Key Areas”, suggesting that the existing control of volatile organic compounds (VOC) pollution has been difficult to meet the urgent needs of the people for improving air quality. Requirements, from the perspective of VOCs emission control, put forward strict environmental access, carry out key industry governance, and improve the requirements of VOCs pollution prevention and control system, which indicates that the country officially proposed the prevention and control targets of VOCs, that is, the prevention and control of VOCs will be fully launched by 2015.

In May 2013, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the “Technical Policy for the Control of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Pollution, and proposed pollution prevention strategies and methods for the production, storage, transportation, sales, use and consumption of VOCs and VOCs. It is proposed that the prevention and control of VOCs pollution should follow the principle of comprehensive prevention and control combining source and process control with end treatment. The document requires that by 2015, the VOCs pollution prevention and control system in key areas will be basically established; by 2020, the reduction of VOCs from raw materials to products and from production to consumption will be basically achieved.

In 2014, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the “Comprehensive Remediation Plan for Volatile Organic Compounds in the Petrochemical Industry”, proposing to reduce the total amount of VOCs discharged by the national petrochemical industry by more than 30% in 2014.

In 2015, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the “Pilot Measures for Volatile Organic Pollutants Charges” to drive the reduction of VOCs in key industries through the collection of sewage charges.

It can be seen that since 2012, the state has paid more and more attention to the atmospheric treatment industry, and the focus of atmospheric control has been tilted from the direction of dust removal, desulfurization and denitrification to VOCs. In recent years, the national policies and regulations on the governance of VOCs have greatly accelerated the development of the VOCs governance industry.