Does audit committee matter for environmental disclosures amid crisis?

Purpose The study examines the impact of Audit Committee (AC) characteristics on environmental disclosures of Ghanaian listed firms before and during the Ghanaian banking crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This study used data from 16 listed firms from 2012 to 2021. Its findings were validated using ordinary least squares regression with a robust standard error and other robustness tests. Environmental disclosures are based on content analysis with a frequency count and percentile rank of 13 keywords based on the global reporting initiative (GRI) framework. The AC characteristics considered are Size, Meetings and their independence. Findings The study finds that AC features of size and independence positively impacted environmental disclosures before the crisis, while their meeting negatively impacted them. However, during the crisis period, AC features of their meeting and independence positively impacted environmental disclosures while their size negatively impacted them. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing literature by providing novel empirical insights into the impact of AC features on environmental disclosures in the Ghanaian context, before and during crisis time.