TY  - JOUR
AU  - Nyakuwanika, Moses
AU  - Panicker, Manoj
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/20
TI  - Integrating Climate Risk into Environmental Management Accounting: Institutional Pressures and Organisational Responses in Zimbabwe
JO  - Advances in Environmental and Engineering Research
SP  - 020
VL  - 07
IS  - 03
AB  - This study explored how organisations in Zimbabwe integrate climate risk into Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) and how this enhances sustainable value creation. The study adopted the Institutional Theory and the sensemaking lens. It employed an inductive, interpretivist, qualitative research design, utilising in-depth interviews with 11 senior professionals in accounting, operations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), sustainability, and regulatory positions. Climate risk awareness was found to be primarily driven by global investors and standards (normative and mimetic pressures), rather than by weak local coercive enforcement (coercive pressures). Although EMA practices are developing, their application remains fragmented, and their integration into basic accounting systems is only partial, with organisations employing techniques such as internal carbon pricing, environmental cost accounting, and material flow accounting. Key barriers to EMA-climate integration include weak regulatory enforcement, limited financial resources, insufficient data, and managerial attitudes. In addition, participants viewed EMA-enabled climate issues as strategic and linked them to improved resource efficiency and resilience, thereby creating long-term value. The findings of the study extend Institutional Theory by highlighting the depth of EMA-climate integration and the role of organisational sensemaking in this process. The findings of this study provide rare empirical contextual evidence on EMA-climate risk integration in a resource-constrained emerging economy. The study’s findings offer insights for policymakers to develop carbon accounting guidelines and for organisational management to formalise climate accounting and embed sustainability into decision-making.
SN  - 2766-6190
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/aeer.2603020
DO  - 10.21926/aeer.2603020
ID  - Nyakuwanika2026
ER  -