Wang Bin, director of the Emergency Management Department of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, told The Beijing News on Sunday that the alert cannot be upgraded due to "a lack of certain conditions."
According to Wang, the smoggy conditions in Beijing will improve significantly on Tuesday, in part due to the arrival of a cold front.
"The Beijing government has already taken effective measures to curb the air pollution with the orange alert, which will affect people's daily life less compared to the red one," Wang said.
China has a four-tier smog warning system, with red representing the most severe air pollution, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Beijing issued a yellow alert on Friday, requiring industrial plants to reduce or shut down production and forcing building and demolition at construction sites to stop.
Under the orange alert issued Sunday, apart from suspension of production at industrial plants, construction sites are also required to halt the transportation of materials and waste, and heavy-duty trucks are banned from roads.
High humidity, strong thermal inversion and low wind speed are among the disadvantageous meteorological conditions preventing pollutants' dispersion, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau explained on Sunday.
According to the National Meteorological Center (NMC), several regions in North China - including the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin as well as Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces - have been plagued by smog from Sunday to Monday.
The NMC announced the dispatch of inspection teams to several cities to reinforce violations checks, such as those involving discharge from coal-fired and industrial plants, outdoor barbecues and the burning of stubble fields.
The inspection groups will also supervise local governments' initiation of heavy pollution emergency plans and will inspect their efforts to battle air pollution, including the removal of heavily-polluting vehicles and dust pollution control at construction sites.
