Abstract : This research aims to examine the impact of audit committee characteristics on the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance of listed banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. This study analyzes data from 54 banks across the six GCC countries—namely, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman—covering the period from 2018 to 2022. Data were collected from the Refinitiv Eikon platform and Annual Reports, and an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) linear Multiple Regression Model was employed for the analysis. The paper empirically investigates how specific characteristics of audit committees, such as independence, expertise, size, and frequency of meetings, influence ESG performance. The results indicate that the expertise, size, and number of meetings of the audit committee significantly positively affect ESG performance. In contrast, the independence of the audit committee shows no significant impact. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the influence of audit committee characteristics on ESG performance in the GCC region. Additionally, it highlights the need for regulatory bodies, policymakers, practitioners, and corporate boards of directors in the GCC region and other developing countries to prioritize Corporate Governance (CG) enforcement and to increase corporate pressures related to disclosing ESG activities.