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In five years, Arizonans could be buying new cars that emit up to 30 percent less emissions that many climate specialists link to global warming.

An advisory committee to Gov. Janet Napolitano included a proposal for a new regulation requiring such "clean cars" as part of a broader package of recommendations it approved Thursday aimed at slashing the state's emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by roughly half from all sectors of the economy.

The recommendations from the 35-member Arizona Climate Change Advisory Group will go to the governor as a package in about a month. She will decide which to propose to state agencies or the Legislature. The "clean car" proposal is one of the most sweeping of these measures, but could be difficult to put into effect.

It matches rules that California and nine other states have adopted. It is also being challenged in court by an alliance of nine car manufacturers, ranging from General Motors to Mitsubishi, which say it will cost too much for too few benefits and contend that states are overreaching their authority by adopting them.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has not yet decided whether to even let California adopt such a regulation. That's despite a recent letter in support of the rules to President Bush from fellow Republican and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But supporters of the measure say its time is now.

"Cars are a real significant contributor to pollution of all sorts," said Ursula Kramer, a committee member and director of Pima County's Department of Environmental Quality. "Anything we can do to improve car pollution is very good."

Although new cars will require technological retooling to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, most drivers won't even notice the changes because many vehicles today have some components such as hybrid gasoline-electric engines, said a spokeswoman for the California Air Resources Board.

"It's a matter of putting all those technologies into one car and putting them together," said Gennet Paauwe, the spokeswoman. "Automakers have been doing this in Asia and Europe for a number of years. These are not things that we have to think up."

The Automobile Manufacturers Alliance, citing studies from a California consultant, says that re-engineering cars to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will add $3,000 to new-car prices. The California air board pegs the added cost at $367 for passenger cars and light trucks in 2012 and $1,064 in 2016. But buyers will save $3 to $11 a month over the long term because they'll be using less and paying less for gasoline, the board says.

But because the only way for a car to emit less carbon dioxide is for it to burn less fuel, the only way to achieve that goal is to make vehicles lighter, smaller and less powerful, said Eron Shosteck, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers' communications director. Some vehicles may not be sold in Arizona anymore, because they won't meet the new rules, Shosteck said.

But supporters of the rules say that isn't inevitable. Although one form of retooling is to make cars lighter, others involve changing the braking and transmission systems and putting an airfoil on the bottom of a car to reduce air drag, supporters say.