Results of mediating effect model.

The 14th Five-Year Plan stated that China should accelerate green development and promote a comprehensive green transition in economic and social development. As China’s economic growth slows, green development becomes greatly significant for the high-quality development of the economy. Based on China’s provincial panel data from 2005 to 2021, this study applies fixed effects model and mediating effect model to explore the influence of the government environmental investment on green development. The results indicate that (1) the government environmental investment was conducive to green development, but such effect weakened with time. (2) The government environmental investment indirectly promoted green development through the application of green patents and economic agglomeration. (3) The promotional effect of the government environmental investment varied according to region and time. Specifically, investment exerted the most significant effect on the green development of eastern China, which became more evident after 2015. The government should promote green development by implementing long-term assessment and accountability mechanisms, expanding the scale of economic agglomeration, improving the efficiency of the application of green patents, and improving the accuracy of environmental investment.