The audit of natural resource assets of leading cadres leaving office is an institutional arrangement to strengthen the construction of ecological civilization. Taking the pilot audit of natural resources assets leaving office in some regions as an opportunity, this paper adopts the multi period double difference method to explore the impact of natural resources assets departure audit on environmental governance efficiency. The results show that after the audit pilot, the efficiency of environmental governance has significantly improved. The mechanism test shows that the audit of natural resources assets can effectively improve the government’s environmental attention intensity and sustainability, and then improve the efficiency of environmental governance. The sub sample test showed that due to the differences in official changes, tenure, age, institutional environment and geographical location, the audit pilot had a heterogeneous impact on the efficiency of environmental governance. The extended test showed that during the audit pilot period, there was a positive correlation between the promotion probability of officials in the pilot cities and the improvement of environmental governance efficiency, and it was more manifested as actual promotion. The research conclusion has an important theoretical and practical significance for strengthening the audit of natural resources assets leaving office and improving the environmental governance mechanism.