Rachel Kyte is Dean Emerita of The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Professor of Practice. She was the first woman to lead the United States’ oldest graduate-only school of global affairs.
Rachel served as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Development for All (SEforALL). She previously was the World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change, leading action on climate finance in the run-up to the Paris Agreement. She also served as an advisor to the UN Secretary-General on climate action and the crisis response to the invasion of Ukraine, chaired the Rwandan Green Fund (FONERWA) and advised the UK government on COP26.
Rachel is currently co-chair of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) working to build high integrity voluntary carbon markets, member of the board Private Infrastructure Development Group with responsibility for ESG, and a member of the G20 Independent Expert Group on Strengthening Multilateral Development Banks appointed by the Government of India. She is an advisor to General Atlantic’s Beyond Net Zero fund and a member of the board of the Carbon Policy Initiative. She is an advisor to Mahindra University’s Center for Sustainable Development and plays a leadership role at the World Economic Forum on trade, climate, energy and minerals. Among her other roles, Rachel is an advisor to AIIB, JBIC and served as a member of IDB-Invest’s Blue Ribbon Commission. Most recently she was invited to serve as the High-Level Champion for Short Lived Climate Pollutants, by the US Climate Envoy and the Government of Ghana.
Rachel regularly speaks, lectures and writes on issues of mobilisation of finance for climate action, energy transitions and climate diplomacy and on the intersection of investing in women, climate action and energy access. She has been recognised for her leadership on both sides of the Atlantic and was made a Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours.