The public sector’s support for climate-linked applications of Engineered Biology (EngBio) is underdeveloped. The US government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has established a program to promote synthetic biology tools for biomass conversion, but it focuses on energy-sector applications and only accounts for 2% of its research effort. The international initiative Mission Innovation has also recognized the potential of EngBio to unlock CO2 emissions reduction in the transport, chemicals, and materials sectors.
The US Department of Energy has set bold EngBio-linked mitigation goals, such as utilizing 60 million metric tons of exhaust gas CO2 suitable for conversion to fuels and products by 2043. Recent US legislation has provided financing options and general support for EngBio research. The realization of EngBio’s climate mitigation potential requires policy interventions to bridge the gap between basic science and deployment. Policymakers must decide which applications warrant public support and what form this support should take, considering technological, political, and social feasibility. EngBio applications may require different types of policy support, depending on factors such as feedstock and land-use implications, displacement of existing industries, and scale of deployment.