China’s State Council said it is considering a slate of new initiatives to protect the environment, including an environmental protection tax, increased budgets for agencies and incentives for private companies working on environmental projects, Bloomberg reported. The State Council also said that it would give tax breaks to certain car fuel businesses, and might also increase tariffs on “high polluting” products. However, the statement did not provide specific details of the policies in question. The announcement follows Premier Wen Jiabao’s comments last month that the country should reduce its emissions and conserve more energy, noting that the environmental situation in China as “rather severe.” The country is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and failed to hit its self-set target of reducing energy consumption by 20% between 2006 and 2010.