Reassessing risk in decision-making on engineering biology 

Project duration: July 2024 – October 2025

A woman wearing an aqua shirt and an akubra hat looks out from a field of crops toward a storm in the distance.

The challenge

As the realities of the climate crisis take effect globally, advanced engineering biology (AEB) technologies have emerged as potential game-changers for climate change mitigation and carbon-negative solutions. While these technologies promise high rewards, deploying them can often be perceived as inherently high-risk.  

Scaling AEB solutions beyond the laboratory can present significant obstacles. These obstacles include: perceived dangers of releasing bioengineered microorganisms and products into the environment; perceived misalignment with public interests; and challenges in translating science outcomes into operable policy instruments.  

Yet traditional ways of weighing up risks and responsibilities are not always well-suited to assess the acceptability of these new technologies, especially in the context of climate change mitigation. This is because they often prioritise consideration of risks over potential benefits, and fail to consider the harmful consequences of inaction.  

While using AEB approaches to develop carbon-negative solutions may challenge certain sociocultural values, these solutions may also present an opportunity for government, industry, and society to rethink the relationship between risk, opportunity and environmental responsibility. 

Our response

The urgency of effective climate change mitigation strategies highlights the need to explore novel visions of risk that can be complementary to environmental responsibility as a key starting point for institutional innovation.  

Building on a collaboration between the AEB FSP and the Western Sydney University Node of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, this project creates a forum for the engineering biology sector to advance dialogue on the acceptability of risk in the current context of climate crisis mitigation – and in light of the need for scalable and effective carbon-negative solutions.  

The project will identify strategies to overcome obstacles to advancement in the field; identifying the levers for strategic institutional innovation to help facilitate the delivery of AEB benefits to more Australian people. 

Impact

A failure to explore novel visions of risk and responsibility when deploying and integrating new carbon negative technologies could impair Australia’s ability to adapt and thrive in future climate scenarios.  

By engaging policy and science experts to reconsider the relationship between responsibility and risk, we are creating an opportunity for science and industry leaders to develop more sustainable and innovative strategies to tackle the climate crisis. 

The engineering biology sector is well-positioned to lead a new generation of solutions for climate change mitigation. By contributing to forward-looking dialogue on the risks, opportunities and responsibilities around novel carbon-negative solutions, this project can help drive the delivery of environmental and social benefits to the Australian public. 

Team

Daniele Fulvi (Project leader, WSU), Henry Dixson (WSU), Josh Wodak (WSU), Lucy Carter (CSIRO), Aditi Mankad (CSIRO), Robert Speight (CSIRO)