During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, a question worth exploring in depth would be how China promotes green development through green finance to realize the goal of financially supporting the construction of ecological civilization. This paper builds a super-efficiency SBM window model to evaluate the comparable eco-efficiency of 30 provincial administrative regions in Mainland China (except Tibet) as a measurement of green development, and constructs an evaluation system for the green finance index, as a measurement of regional green finance development levels in China from 2007 to 2019. This paper also constructs spatial econometric models to study the effects of green finance on green development, and the influence of green finance on green development through supporting green technological innovation. Moreover, this paper analyzes the mechanisms of the spatial spillover effects and the heterogeneity in eastern, central, and western regions of China. The results of the study show that green finance only has a positive effect on green development in eastern regions, while in central and western regions, it fails to effectively support green development. The positive effect of green finance on green development by supporting green technological innovation is only in eastern regions, but it is not significant in the central region, while negative effect in the western region. Finally, according to the research conclusions, it is proposed to implement differentiated policies of green finance and the integration policies of green finance and green technological innovation policies in different regions of China.

The eco-efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2005 to 2019 has been evaluated by the super-efficiency SBM window model, the results of which are taken as the measurement standard for green development. Next, more attempts have been done to figure out the impacts of green technological innovation on the green development in urban clusters of the Yangtze River Economic Belt by a systematic GMM model, further confirming the moderation effect of dual environmental regulations on the relationship between green technological innovation and green development and the heterogeneity in different urban clusters of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Finally, it is a fact that a cascade has been pointed out in green development of the Yangtze River Economic Zone. With an empirical analysis, it has been found that green technological innovation has a positive moderating effect on green development in the downstream regions, and the relationship between green technological innovation and green development is positively affected by the formal environmental regulations in the overall Yangtze River Economic Zone and the midstream region. Meanwhile, informal environmental regulations play a positive role in moderating the links between green technological innovation and green development in the overall Yangtze River Economic Zone, as well as the upstream, midstream and downstream regions. Based on the conclusions of the research, some policy suggestions of a multi-environmental regulation governance system and regional differentiated environmental regulation are given at last.