New Delhi: According to an analysis by Bloomberg, businesses used the term “air pollution” in earnings releases, analyst calls or presentations of BSE AllCap Index members at least 988 times in 2025 – the highest number of instances since 2021. References included discussion of pollution control measures, as well as the impacts of poor air quality on businesses.Earning calls are teleconferences or webcasts in which a public company discusses its financial results for a reporting period, often providing earnings guidance for future performance.Earnings for the MSCI India Index, which measures the performance of large and mid-cap segments of the Indian equity market, will also trail regional peers over the next year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Several cities including Delhi and Mumbai have grappled with construction halts and reduced footfall over November and December due to air pollution across sectors ranging from developers to retail. It is “not unreasonable” to say that it does have an effect on the economy, the report quoted David Smith, senior investment director at Aberdeen Investments which holds Indian equities, as saying. The issue can translate to “lost production days for real estate and manufacturing, lost retail demand, sick days and the broader cost of healthcare,” he told Bloomberg.The impact of poor air quality will also “soon affect real estate and thus it can be one of the major risks of investing in Delhi property,” the report quoted Omaxe Ltd., a property developer, as saying in a blog post. The report also quoted Managing Director of real estate developer DLF Ltd, Ashok Kumar Tyagi, as saying in an earnings call in January 2026 that pollution restrictions have impacted construction spending in the December quarter for the past four years.This disclosure about the impacts of air pollution comes despite a tendency to aggregate the impacts of multiple pollutants together, a report by The Hindu quoted Prarthana Borah, Fellow at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), as saying. Companies do report air pollution as a material ESG risk, but it depends on the industry, geography, regulatory exposure and results of their materiality assessment, she added.Reporting about air pollution is voluntary, even though as per India’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework, air pollution disclosures are required if identified as a material risk, per The Hindu report. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures also expects disclosures when air pollution materially impacts nature and creates financial risk. But even when companies do disclose on air pollution, there is a tendency to aggregate multiple pollutants together and avoid disclosing on worst-performing facilities, The Hindu quoted Borah as saying. Supply chains are often omitted from this list, and she added.