Gearing up for sustainability and climate change disclosures in Ghana: a qualitative study

Environmental degradation through greenhouse gas emission, irregular mining practices, sand winning, indiscriminate timber logging, bush-fire, etc. has reached alarming rate in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some studies blame the accounting profession for these threats. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), in their quest to resolve the situation, through the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), have issued International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on sustainability and climate change disclosures. In this study, we assess how accountants in Ghana are geared up for the implementation of these standards using a qualitative study approach. The results of the study show that accountants in Ghana are generally aware of sustainability accounting. Nevertheless, most of them lack the requisite knowledge of the thematic areas of the IFRS sustainability disclosure and reporting standards issued by IFAC's ISSB to facilitate their implementation. The implications of the results are discussed. This study, thus, makes a significant contribution to the extant literature on sustainability reporting by soliciting the opinion of accountants in Ghana.