Abstract
Energy efficiency is critical for green growth, which is conducive to economic transformation and meeting the challenges associated with climate change. This research employs provincial data from China covering 2010 to 2022 to analyze the progress of energy efficiency under the impact of green finance using Driscoll-Kraay standard errors, feasible generalized least squares, and panel threshold regression methods, and draws the following conclusions. Nationwide, energy efficiency has continued to improve, but there are regional imbalances. The performance of the eastern area is obviously superior compared to that of the middle and western areas, and the optimization effect is more significant. Both green credit and green bonds have an obvious positive association with energy efficiency. With the rise in economic development and R&D expenditure, the benefits of green credit and green bonds on energy efficiency have also increased, especially green bonds showing a stronger threshold effect. Additionally, there is regional heterogeneity between green credit and green bonds in boosting energy efficiency. Eastern provinces have higher impact coefficients, central provinces have moderate values, and western provinces have the lowest. Therefore, we recommend implementing targeted green financial policies, increasing the supply of green finance, and promoting technological innovation to enhance energy utilization.