Scaling has a serious impact on oil production. Adding scale inhibitor is one of the most effective methods to inhibit scaling at present. The problems faced by the application of traditional scale inhibitors in oil fields，such as environmental pollution and poor high temperature resistance，was introduced. The research status of green scale inhibitors was summarized，focusing on green scale inhibitors such as polyepoxysuccinic acid and polyaspartic acid. the methods and scale inhibition mechanism of enhancing the performance of scale inhibitors were expounded from the direction of introducing modified groups such as carboxyl， amino and amide groups. Finally，the development direction of green scale inhibitor was prospected，which had reference value for the future development of this field.