Green innovation is an important strategic tool to promote the green transformation of economic development. How green finance acts on enterprises' green innovation behavior is a problem that has attracted much attention in academia. Taking all A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2022 as the research sample, the impact of regional green finance development on enterprises' green innovation performance was empirically tested, and the mechanism was verified from the perspective of risk taking. The results show that the development of regional green finance can significantly promote the improvement of enterprises' green innovation performance. The mechanism is that the development of regional green finance can improve enterprises' risk taking level, enhance enterprises' innovation motivation and willingness, and then promote enterprises to carry out green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive impact of green finance on enterprises' green innovation performance is more significant in state-owned enterprises and enterprises in the eastern region.