Twenty Asian nations have made an unprecedented commitment to improving urban air quality as experts branded as “conservative” newly-released data estimating 537,000 people die prematurely in Asian cities every year as a result of air pollution.

Analysts applauded the 20 nations’ Yogyakarta Summary, named after the Indonesian city hosting the Better Air Quality 2006 conference late last week. But they highlighted its non-binding nature and lack of specifics as evidence of both how the region has barely begun tackling the problem and the complexity of the issues.