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Humanity is on the threshold of a technological revolution that will allow all human structures across the earth to undertake photosynthesis more efficiently than plants; making zero carbon fuels by using solar energy to split water (as a cheap and abundant source of hydrogen) or other products from reduced atmospheric carbon dioxide. The development and global deployment of such articial photosynthesis (AP) technology addresses three of humanity’s most urgent public policy challenges: to reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, to increase fuel security and to provide a sustainable global economy and ecosystem. Yet, despite the considerable research being undertaken in this eld and the incipient thrust to commercialisation, AP remains largely unknown in energy and climate change public policy debates. Here we explore mechanisms for enhancing the policy and governance prole of this frontier technology for energy sustainability, even in the absence of a global project on articial photosynthesis. Globalizing AP – a first principles argument The argument for globalising articial photosynthesis (AP) appears simple from rst principles. Most of the our energy (particularly for transport) at present comes from burning ‘archived photosynthesis’ fuels (i.e., carbon-intensive oil, coal and natural gas) in a centralised and protable distribution network with decades long turnaround on high levels of private corporate investment and a well-honed capacity to prolong its existence through innovations such as coal-seam gas ‘fracking’ and shale oil extraction, despite its signicant contribution to critical problems such as atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, ocean acidication and geopolitical instability. 1,2 Molecular hydrogen (H2) is an obvious alternative, its conversion into electricity or heat yielding only H2O, with no CO2 being produced. Currently 500 � 109 standard cubic

Resource limitation is an escalating concern given human expansion and development. Algae are increasingly recognised as a promising bioresource and the range of cultivated species and their products is expanding. Compared to terrestrial crops, microalgae are very biodiverse and offer considerable versatility for a range of biotechnological applications including the production of animal feeds, fuels, high value products and waste-water treatment. Despite their versatility and capacity for high biomass productivity on non-arable land, attempts to harness microalgae for commercial benefit have been limited. This is in large part due to capital costs and energy inputs remaining high, the necessity of identifying ‘suitable’ land with proximal resource and infrastructure availability and the need for process and strain optimisation. Microalgae represent a relatively unexplored bioresource both for native and engineered strains. Success in this area requires (1) appropriate methods to source and isolate microalgae strains, (2) efficient maintenance of motherstocks, (3) rapid strain characterisation and correct matching of strains to applications, (4) ensuring productive and stable cultivation at scale, and (5) ongoing strain development (breeding, adaptation and engineering). This article illustrates a survey and isolation of over 150 local microalgae strains as a bioresource for ongoing strain development and biotechnological applications.