Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, a subject of intense debate today, both for limitation of emissions and an increased sequestration. Forests are well known carbon stores that (bio) sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide for many years. Research projects with the aim to use straight CO2 are ongoing all over the world. Many of those make use of chemical catalysts but we see also the application of nature's toolbox (enzymes & fermentation) in industrial processes for CO2 abatement. These research activities would in all likelihood take 10 to 15 years to work up to full production but we already see a few applications nearing completion today.
If you follow the topic of new biobased building blocks you must certainly have come across succinic acid, one of the most promising building blocks together with 1-4 Butanediol and lactic acid. Whether you (bio-) synthesize succinic acid by yeast, or bacteria they grow on a sugar and carbon dioxide as feedstocks (25% of the carbon in the succinic acid molecule).