Measurement of China’s green development level and its spatial differentiation in the context of carbon neutrality

China’s green development in the context of carbon neutrality is facing both new constraints and new practices. In the new situation, it is crucial to further refine the indicator system and re-measure green development. Based on previous studies and carbon neutral background, the theoretical framework of green development is improved and an indicator system is constructed, and the panel entropy method, Thiel index and Moran index are used to measure and analyze green development level and its spatial evolution pattern in China from 2010 to 2019. The study shows that: (1) China’s green development level is on the rise and its growth rate is high, and it generally shows a spatial distribution pattern of northeast >east > west > central, and the fastest growth rate in the east; (2) There are some spatial differences in green development level in China and the spatial differences are gradually narrowing, while only the spatial differences in the green wealth index and the inter-regional differences in the green growth index are slightly expanding; (3) There is no obvious spatial clustering phenomenon in China’s green development level as a whole, and there is a positive spatial matching relationship between green development level and green wealth index and green growth index locally, which does not form a close correlation with green welfare index. The study proposes countermeasures based on stimulating the endogenous power of green development and narrowing the regional differences of green growth index, which are of reference value for China to promote green development in the context of carbon neutrality.