At the recent KPMG Sustainability Conference dubbed: ‘Winning with Sustainability’, Maame Barnie Adu Amoah, shared expert views in a post-session interview, offering a sharp legal lens on the evolving ESG landscape in Ghana and emerging markets.

Ms. Amoah, a Senior Legal Associate at B&P Associates and a thought leader in Sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) conversations in the legal space stated that ESG has become increasingly common as stakeholders hold companies more accountable and investors demand more for their money. ESG metrics are performance indicators of a business's operations with environmental, social and governance issues to help determine its performance and potential risks. “ESG is no longer a peripheral concern,” she noted. “It’s a strategic imperative that defines risk, resilience, and reputation.”

She challenged organisational leaders to go beyond surface-level compliance and integrate principles of these areas into company policies, reports and operations through analyzing or benchmarking. “Companies must stay ahead of ESG developments and best practices to remain competitive in a global economy,” she said.

She also stated that with the global surge in ESG litigation, companies must rethink risk factors and prepare to navigate this new reality, by understanding the legal landscape pertaining to ESG issues, conducting regular ESG assessments, and engaging with the relevant stakeholders such as their shareholders, lenders, regulators, consumers and employees.

Ms. Amoah emphasised the need for legal professionals to build capacity in the ESG space. Being a champion in Sustainability and Emerging Trends herself, Ms. Amoah has contributed towards knowledge and capacity building in sustainability through notable articles like ‘ESG Reporting in the Ghanaian Ecosystem’, published in Mondaq in August 2023, which provided a comprehensive analysis of the gaps and opportunities in Ghana’s regulatory environment for ESG disclosure.

In ‘Green Bond Financing: The Role of Certification and Regulation in Ghana’s Growing Bond Market’ (Mondaq, February 2024), she underscores the critical role robust certification frameworks and regulatory oversight play in ensuring credibility and growth of Ghana’s green bond market.

In addition, Maame Barnie Adu Amoah has contributed chapters to books published by Thomson Reuters, Sweet & Maxwell and Thomson Reuters Practical Law, 2023, alongside commentary for the International Comparative Legal Guide: ESG Law 2023 and 2024 (ICLG) and the Oxford Business Group’s Ghana Legal Framework Reports in both 2022 and 2023. Through these publications, Amoah has secured a place as a global thought leader, her expertise shaping how businesses and governments in Africa respond to international standards of governance and sustainability. Further through her work with the Africa Sustainable Energy Centre, she has consistently drawn from real-world engagements with multinational clients, governments, and NGOs. This practical grounding has given her writing credibility, making her not only a scholar but a practitioner whose work is directly influencing corporate strategy and public policy. Ms. Amoah thanked KPMG for making the Sustainability Conference in Ghana an annual one and encouraged other multinational corporations to follow suit.