Abstract: Against the backdrop of accelerating global green transition, promoting green innovation has become a key path to achieve high-quality and sustainable economic development, and the collaborative environmental regulation by the government and the public is emerging as an important driving force for urban green innovation. Based on the data from 282 cities in China spanning from 2011 to 2023, this study employs a coupling coordination degree model to measure the level of collaborative environmental regulation between the government and the public, and explores the impact of such collaboration on urban green innovation. The research results indicate that the collaborative environmental regulation between the government and the public can promote urban green innovation. This collaborative regulation can drive urban green innovation by influencing corporate green strategies. Intellectual property protection and digital government construction can enhance the promotional effect of collaborative environmental regulation between the government and the public on urban green innovation. The promotional effect of the collaborative environmental regulation between the government and the public on urban green innovation is more prominent in cities with a lower proportion of the secondary industry, a higher proportion of the tertiary industry, and greater government expenditure on science and technology. Therefore, all regions should improve the collaborative environmental regulation mechanism between the government and the public, strengthen intellectual property protection and digital government construction, optimize industrial structure, and increase investment in science and technology, in order to promote urban green innovation and drive green development across the entire society.

Key words: environmental regulation, government and public collaboration, green innovation, coupled coordination degree modeling