IntroductionAchieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires policy instruments that can improve environmental quality without undermining economic development, particularly in rapidly urbanizing economies. This study examines whether China’s sci-tech finance pilot policy contributes to urban green transition.MethodsTreating the policy as a quasi-natural experiment, this study constructs a panel of 294 prefecture-level cities from 2001 to 2023, including 49 pilot cities, and estimates a diff