Taking the green talent policy successively promulgated by Chinese cities as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper investigates whether and how green talent policy affects corporate green innovation. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2021 and hand-collected green talent policy data, our findings reveal that green talent policy significantly enhances the quantity and quality of green innovation. Additional analyses indicate that enhanced green human capital and alleviated financing constraints are two potential mechanisms through which green talent policy plays a role. Furthermore, our results support the notion that the green talent policy would bring resources to enterprises. This paper finds that the positive relationship between green talent policy and green innovation is more pronounced in firms with limited human capital and in less developed green credit regions. However, this positive correlation is not apparent for firms in less market-oriented regions due to inadequate intellectual property protection. Overall, these results indicate that green talent policy is a significant factor in promoting corporate green innovation. Our findings contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of green talent policy implementation and provide policy implications for improving green innovation in emerging markets.