Accelerating green transformation is an inherent requirement for highquality economic development. This paper empirically examines the impact of public environmental concern on the development of green finance by using panel data from 284 cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The results show that public environmental concerns have a significant positive impact on the development of green finance, and this conclusion is still true after a series of robustness tests. The transmission mechanism test shows that public environmental concerns promote the development of green finance by promoting the government to improve the intensity of environmental regulation. The regulatory effect test shows that the level of regional economic development and regional green innovation can positively regulate the positive impact of public environmental concern on green finance. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that in the central and western regions, areas with higher education level, higher pollution emissions and open environmental information, public environmental concerns play a more significant role in promoting green finance. In order to further stimulate public concern for the environment in the process of promoting the development of green finance, relevant policy suggestions such as improving the public participation mechanism, improving the level of green innovation, and formulating differentiated development strategies are proposed.