With the deepening of economic globalization, regions face intensifying competing pressures from economic development and environmental protection. The cultivation and enhancement of newquality productivity have become critical for achieving economic transformation and upgrading. Based on panel data from 288 prefecturelevel cities in China between 2011 and 2022, this study employs ecological and environmental protection audits as a quasinatural experiment and applies a multiperiod differenceindifferences model to examine their impact on regional newquality productivity. The empirical results indicate that ecological and environmental protection audits significantly enhance regional newquality productivity levels through pathways such as strengthening environmental law enforcement, increasing green subsidies, and enhancing motivation for environmental governance. Furthermore, as regional green innovation levels and the degree of artificial intelligence advancement increase, the positive effect of ecological and environmental protection audits on newquality productivity is further intensified. Additional analysis reveals that the role of ecological and environmental protection audits in boosting newquality productivity is stronger in regions with robust social auditing capabilities, stringent local environmental regulations, and high public environmental awareness. Moreover, technology finance pilot policies and ecological and environmental protection audits exhibit a synergistic effect in enhancing regional newquality productivity. The findings of this study enrich the understanding of the green governance effects of ecological and environmental protection audits and offer important implications for improving their implementation effectiveness and accelerating the development of newquality productivity.