The Climate Action Lab at La Follette School of Public Affairs (CAL) is a grant-funded research lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison that uses methods that combine large datasets, community knowledge, and modeling to define actions to reduce anthropogenic carbon emissions. It follows themes of ending the use of traditional energy sources, aiming for socially equal outcomes, and the modeling of novel technologies to measure emission reductions and the effects of proposed climate-mitigating technologies. ¹

Research Advocacy

Coal Phaseout

The Climate Action Lab at La Follette School of Public Affairs produced a study detailing a plant-by-plant strategy for the phase out of coal plants in China which was published in Nature Communications in 2021. The study provided detail of lifetimes of coal plants and assessed the feasibility of an accelerated phase out. ²

The lab authored “Quantifying operational lifetimes for coal power plants under the Paris goals” in 2019 which advocated for no new coal plant construction and the retirement of existing facilities. ³

Gas Leaks

The lab investigates methane leaks from natural gas systems and defines a strategy to reduce leaks. The supposition of CAL is that methane leakage contributes to changing the climate and supports policies to curb leaks. ⁴

Climate Metrics

CAL develops models to measure climate mitigation technologies like carbon capture and storage to assess the impact of carbon emission reductions. ⁵

CAL published a research article titled “modeling direct air carbon capture and storage in a 1.5 C climate future using historical analogs” to define the value of carbon capture. ⁶

Equal Outcomes

The Climate Action Lab at La Follette School of Public Affairs produces research designed to support advocacy for equal outcomes for heat pump usage and household water use to ensure that solutions provide a so-called just transition in alignment with climate equal outcome goals. ⁷

Collaboration

CAL develops tools to link global, state, and local actions to the same strategies designed to empower local governments to act in unison with global actions. ⁷

CAL collaborates with the University of Wisconsin, Madison Office of Sustainability and the Holloway Group @ Sage in supporting research and the development of satellite data-based information tools to accelerate the transition from traditional energy sources to non-traditional unreliable weather-based sources and their relation to land use and local community requirements while supporting equal outcome-based research, education, and economic development. ⁸

Funding

The Climate Action Lab at La Follette School of Public Affairs receives funding from government grants, one of which was a $998,049 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency in September 2023 to demonstrate and produce standard modeling and mapping of methane hotspots. $399,957.69 of the grant had been paid out as of March 2025. ⁹

CAL received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy in late October 2024 which aims to reduce carbon emissions from older buildings by 75 percent by 2030 in partnership with Trane, Slipstream, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). ¹⁰

CAL research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences surrounding direct air capture of carbon storage (DACCS) was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. ¹¹

CAL provides research training and support to undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin – Madison via the Sophomore Research fellowship funded by grants from the Brittingham Wisconsin Trust and the Kemper K. Knapp Bequest. ¹²

Leadership

Morgan Edwards leads the Climate Action Lab at La Follette School of Public Affairs and is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. She is affiliated with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, the Center for Sustainability Global Environment (SAGE), the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, and Energy Analysis and Policy (EAP). ¹³

1. “Research.” Climate Action Lab. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.climateactionlab.com/research.
2. Cui, Ryna Yiyun, Nathan Hultman, Diyang Cui, Haewon McJeon, Sha Yu, Morgan R. Edwards, Arijit Sen, et al. “A Plant-by-Plant Strategy for High-Ambition Coal Power Phaseout in China.” Nature News, March 16, 2021. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21786-0.
3. View article. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&amp=&hl=en&amp=&user=4o2_bvcAAAAJ&amp=&pagesize=100&amp=&sortby=pubdate&amp=&citation_for_view=4o2_bvcAAAAJ:YsMSGLbcyi4C.
4. Edwards, Morgan. “Natural Gas Leaks and Repair Failures.” Climate Action Lab, April 9, 2021. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.climateactionlab.com/visualizations/gas-leaks.
5. Edwards, Morgan. “Greenhouse Gas Metrics.” Climate Action Lab, October 24, 2021. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://climate-action-lab.squarespace.com/projects/climate-metrics.
6. Modeling direct air carbon capture and storage in a 1.5 °C climate future using historical analogs | PNAS. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2215679121.
7. “Research.” Climate Action Lab. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://climate-action-lab.squarespace.com/research.
8. Edwards, Morgan. “Mapping University of Wisconsin’s Renewable Energy Potential.” Climate Action Lab, October 27, 2022. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.climateactionlab.com/visualizations/uwrenewableenergymap.
9. USAspending.gov. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_84062401_6800.
10. “Edwards’ Research Team Awarded Doe Grant for Heat Pump Tech.” La Follette School of Public Affairs, October 31, 2024. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://lafollette.wisc.edu/news/edwards-research-team-awarded-doe-grant-for-heat-pump-tech/.
11.  “Direct Air Carbon Capture Can Play a Big Role in Climate Change Fight – If Adopted Quickly.” Wisconsin Energy Institute, May 9, 2024. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://energy.wisc.edu/news/direct-air-carbon-capture-can-play-big-role-climate-change-fight-if-adopted-quickly.
12. Tan, Jing Ling. “Researcher Spotlight: Raines Lucas Research Showcase and Fellowship.” Climate Action Lab, July 12, 2024. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.climateactionlab.com/lab-news/researcher-spotlight-raines.
13. “About the Lab.” Climate Action Lab. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.climateactionlab.com/about-the-lab.