With energy consumption and carbon emissions continue to increase. The climate issues are becoming more severe. Many environmental regulation policies have been promulgated to address the challenges of environmental degradation. Carbon trading policy, as an important means, promotes green technology innovation in enterprises through market forces to reduce carbon emissions. As the main emitters of carbon in China, high-energy-consuming enterprises bear tremendous pressure and challenges for carbon emission reduction. And there is an urgent need to increase investment in green technology innovation to adapt to the market environment. To explore the impact of carbon trading policies on green technology innovation in high-energy-consuming enterprises, a difference in differences model was constructed. Panel data of A-share listed companies in high energy consuming industries from 2000 to 2022 were used to empirically test the relationship between carbon trading policies and green technology innovation of high energy consuming enterprises. The results indicate that carbon trading policies can significantly promote green technology innovation in high energy consuming enterprises. In addition, the research samples were grouped based on different dimensions to further explore the heterogeneity of policy impacts in different contexts. The findings reveal that carbon trading policies have a stronger promoting effect on green technology innovation in stronger enterprises. Compared to green invention patents, carbon trading policies have a greater impact on the number of green utility model patents obtained. When enterprises have a higher proportion of institutional investor shareholding, their green technology innovation is more significantly influenced by carbon trading policies. And enterprises located in key import and export provinces and cities in China are more affected by carbon trading policies than those in other regions.