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Aerosols serve as crucial indicators of air pollution assessment, and exert significant effects on climate change, ecological environment, and human health. However, the relationship between energy consumption, a significant contributor to air pollution, and aerosols in different economic development zones in China remains understudied. This paper employs satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) data to investigate the spatio-temporal variation of aerosols over China in the last two decades, applying Pearson correlation and geographical detector methods to evaluate the impacts of energy consumption and air pollution factors, and to examine their response to regional economic development and emission reduction policies. Results indicated that elevated AOD values are primarily concentrated within the six major urban agglomerations. The spatio-temporal variations of AOD differ significantly among various economic development regions. AOD values in the central and eastern regions have consistently decreased but still exhibit higher compared to the regions in the west and northeast in the past decade. Natural gas and coal are the main energy sources affecting AOD, and the influences of crude oil, petrol, and kerosene on AOD can be ignored. Over the years, nitrogen dioxide is the main air pollution emissions in various regions. Notably, the influence of ozone is significant in the eastern region, with an increase in the northeast and western in recent years. This study enhances the understanding of how energy consumption affects aerosol pollution across different economic regions, and provides a theoretical basis for targeted air pollution prevention and control.