Based on the balanced panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2018, this paper uses the carbon trading pilot operation as a quasi-natural experiment, and uses the double-difference model and the mediation effect model to test the impact mechanism and action mechanism of the carbon trading pilot on regional total factor productivity. The research results show that: (1) On the whole, the carbon trading pilot has a significant role in promoting the improvement of regional green total factor productivity, and after a number of robustness tests, the above results are still true; (2) The mechanism analysis shows that through the effect of energy structure, technological innovation and industrial structure, the carbon trading pilots improves green total factor productivity in the pilot area, of which the industrial structure effect has the most significant impact, followed by the technological innovation effect, and the energy structure effect is the weakest; (3) the heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of carbon trading pilots on regional green total factor productivity is significant in the eastern region, but not in the western region, and it has a certain inhibitory effect on the central region.