The United Nations has outlined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to call upon the citizens of the world to work towards a healthier Earth [1]. Our project addresses Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts [1].

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We spoke with several experts to gain background knowledge for our project, allowing us to further our understanding of how this project could mitigate the effects of Climate Change:

 The end goal of our project is to increase carbon sequestration through introduction of the POAP cycle into the minimal cell. This process will remove carbon from our atmosphere, mitigating greenhouse gas effects that damage our environment. In our conception of this project we considered the long-term impacts of both the POAP cycle and the minimal cell if used in this context. The POAP cycle converts carbon dioxide into a less harmful product which is less damaging to the environment in the long run. The human race is currently outputting more carbon into the atmosphere than can be absorbed by natural carbon sinks [3]. MACS would act as an assistant to these natural sinks, greatly increasing the amount of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere each year. We also chose the minimal cell due to its minimal genome. Using the minimal cell reduces the likelihood of negative side effects that could occur between the interaction of the POAP cycle and the host cell's native functions. Using the minimal cell as a biological chassis will also allow us to observe the effects that the synthetic pathway has on its host. With this knowledge we can mitigate the likelihood of biosafety risks occurring if this pathway is to be integrated into more complicated organisms. The minimal cell is a rapidly dividing organism which will reproduce the POAP cycle if integrated into its genome. Progress toward reducing carbon emissions can be economically difficult due to longstanding infrastructure, MACS provides an economically viable alternative to reducing carbon emissions by absorbing the carbon from the atmosphere.

 Although we focused on Goal 13, our efforts to slow the effects of climate change will have far reaching effects on the other SDGs. As mentioned in our Inclusivity section, those that will be most affected by the global boiling will be underrepresented and marginalized communities. By mitigating the effects of climate change we will be mitigating these damages, making progress towards several goals aimed at helping developing countries and disadvantaged communities [1]. MACS will also make progress towards Goal 14, a goal aimed towards conserving life below water [1]. One of the effects of climate change is ocean acidification. The ocean is another sink for carbon in the atmosphere, it absorbs about a quarter of the released carbon dioxide a year and due to our increased emissions of carbon dioxide, the ocean has absorbed a lot of carbon dioxide [4]. This has caused the ocean to become more acidic over time, posing a massive threat to life in the ocean, which in turn poses a threat to the many people who depend on seafood and ocean life for both job and food security [5]. By reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with MACS, we would reduce the amount absorbed by the ocean, therefore slowing the process of ocean acidification.

 Our work towards creating MACS has been documented in our engineering notebooks and through this project. In addition, we have drafted a manuscript in an effort to help future researchers tackle cellular carbon capture. We are the first group to test a minimized carbon fixation cycle in vivo, and we hope that other groups will build on our work with the help of our mini-review.

 Our work will be continued after the competition and it is our great hope that one day our work will make a measurable difference in the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. We also hope that our work will inspire other research groups around the world to look into the benefits of synthetic carbon fixation cycles and their importance in humanity's fight against climate change.

 In addition to our work as a team, some of our members are a part of the Global Changemakers Scholar Program at UC San Diego. This program is specifically geared towards students who want to use their education to make progress towards one of the United Nations’ SDGs. As a part of the program, Global Changemaker Scholars complete a Grand Challenge Commitment project and a paper and presentation related to that project. The goal of this project is to further one of the SDGs [2].