Managerial Sensemaking of Climate Policy Uncertainty: Environmental Management Accounting and Climate Risk Disclosure in Zimbabwean Firms

The purpose of this study is to explore how Zimbabwean firms use Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) and climate risk disclosure amid climate policy uncertainty and how managers perceive these practices as relevant to organisational resilience and long-term sustainability within a volatile institutional and macroeconomic context. The study was couched in the interpretivist research philosophy and adopted the inductive research approach. A case study research design, which aligns with a qualitative research design, was chosen for the study. The study employed in-depth interviews with management accountants, finance executives, and industry leaders across firms in Harare. The study adopted the cross-sectional time horizon and analysed data using thematic analysis to develop insights into the role of EMA and climate risk disclosure in times of policy uncertainty. The findings suggest that participants perceived climate policy uncertainty as influencing organisational efforts to reconfigure management accounting practices through greater environmental performance monitoring, adaptive budgeting, and scenario-based planning. The findings of this study suggest that organisational actors interpreted climate policy uncertainty as a condition requiring greater flexibility in budgeting, environmental monitoring, and strategic planning. Participants in this study associated EMA with improved environmental cost visibility and more adaptive approaches to investment appraisal and risk management under uncertain policy conditions. Similarly, participants perceived climate risk disclosure as increasingly crucial for strengthening organisational legitimacy, stakeholder confidence, and institutional credibility. While respondents linked sustainability-oriented accounting adaptation to broader organisational resilience and long-term sustainable growth aspirations, these relationships were understood through managerial perceptions and organisational experiences rather than as directly measurable macroeconomic outcomes. The study contributes to the sustainability accounting literature by providing qualitative, context-sensitive insights into how managers in an emerging economy interpret climate policy uncertainty and adapt EMA and climate risk disclosure practices within volatile institutional conditions. The study further contributes by integrating sensemaking theory and institutional theory to explain how organisational interpretations of uncertainty shape sustainability-oriented accounting adaptation and perceptions of organisational resilience. It is therefore recommended that the regulatory institutional pillar be strengthened to reduce uncertainty and enhance the EMA’s strategic adaptation.