Micro green technology innovation effects of green finance pilot policy—From the perspectives of action points and green value

•Green Finance Pilot Policy can stimulate strategic green innovation.•Green Finance Pilot Policy can improve the emerging degree of green patents.•These effects show heterogeneity with the change of regional and firm characteristics.•Quotability, social and environmental values are brought by the green innovation effects. Prior literature on the green innovation effects of green finance policies is vast, but scholars have mostly focused on the quantity and quality of green innovation, with a bias in the policy action points analysis. Accordingly, this study explores the action points and green value of China's Green Finance Pilot Policy (GFPP) by analyzing the green behavior of listed industrial enterprises. The findings suggest that GFPP cannot improve the quality of green patents, but plays a strong role in improving the emerging degree of green technology and stimulates innovation activities in end-pollutant treatment and green process improvement. Furthermore, the green value investigation indicates that GFPP not only promotes technology diffusion and the ESG scores of industrial enterprises, but also reduces corporate carbon emission intensity. Overall, this study provides an important reference for the implementation of green finance policies to realize the green development of enterprises.