The development of green innovation in the manufacturing industry is crucial for sustainability, as it can lead to significant environmental and economic benefits. Meanwhile, the impact of digital transformation on green innovation in the manufacturing industry has been proven to be significant in a previous study. To further explore the impact of digital transformation on the development of green innovation in the manufacturing industry under the dual carbon goal, this article selects data from Chinese A-share manufacturing listed companies from 2013 to 2022 as the observation sample, proposes research hypotheses based on stakeholder theory, and conducts empirical analysis. The results indicate that digital transformation can significantly promote the development of green innovation in the manufacturing industry, which is transmitted through corporate environmental responsibility. Corporate environmental responsibility plays a partial mediating role in the impact of digital transformation on the development of green innovation. Meanwhile, media attention can strengthen the positive impact of digital transformation on green innovation. In heterogeneity analysis, it was found that the higher the institutional shareholding and analyst attention, the more likely a company’s digital transformation can promote green innovation. In addition, by comparing and analyzing the data of the two years before and after the proposal of the dual carbon target, it was found that the incentive effect of the dual carbon target did not achieve the expected effect in this article, which may be related to the short time of the proposal of the dual carbon target and the impact of the epidemic.