After the Covid-19 pandemic, the best chance for recovery is to prioritize clean, zero-carbon energy and achieve green development efficiency gains. The research selects the super-efficient SBM model to measure the green development efficiency (GDE) of 30 regions in China, and on this basis, explores resource industry dependence and green finance impact on GDE, conclusions as follows: (1) GDE as a whole shows a steady upward trend, and regional GDE shows a trend of first a small decline and then an increase; the value of eastern part is highest. (2) In any case, resource industry dependence primary term is always negative, which proves that there is indeed a “resource curse” phenomenon in GDE. The positive but insignificant coefficient of the quadratic term of resource industry dependence does not prove that there is a conditional “resource curse” between resource industry dependence and GDE. Green finance can promote GDE in China; it enhances GDE by allocating green credit funds, supporting environmental protection projects, and improving technology and optimizing industrial structure. (3) Environmental regulation and urbanization affect GDE shows non-linear relationship, and FDI improves GDE confirms that the pollution heaven hypothesis is not valid. The rationalization of industrial structure inhibits GDE. The research in this paper can provide a theoretical reference for regional policy choices and has important practical significance for regions to achieve sustainable development goals.