We are delighted to announce that Kit Vaughan has joined the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) as a Visiting Policy Fellow, on a 12-month fellowship.

Kit Vaughan is Senior Climate Policy Advisor to The Elders, where he provides technical and strategic policy advice on climate change and international development with a focus on the political economy of multilateral processes. Prior to joining The Elders in 2023, he worked as Senior Climate Change Advisor at Save the Children, Climate and Environment Director at Care International UK and was Head of Climate Change Adaptation and Impacts at WWF, as well as working at the Department for International Development (DFID). He has a special interest in international development and politics with a focus on environmental sustainability and climate change.

Kit is a highly skilled international sustainability expert, focusing on environment, climate change and social impacts. He has over 25 years’ experience of leading international teams and delivering change, developing strategy, communications and campaigns and programme design and delivery. He is experienced in helping organisations respond to the climate, sustainability and environmental crisis, and has worked with a diverse range of stakeholders, including UN agencies, multilateral funders, national governments, private and not-for-profit organisations and youth groups and local communities.

At the IPR, Kit will connect with colleagues across the University working in areas related to addressing the climate crisis, and with colleagues across the UK Universities Climate Network for areas of expertise beyond Bath – specifically around conversations on governance and finance in the lead up to COP29. He will advise on the ActNowFilm project and the international Youth Climate Negotiation Training Programme being co-designed by the IPR and Cambridge Zero. He will present workshops to University of Bath post-graduate students, in particular the Doctorate in Policy Research and Practice and Masters in Public Policy courses, as well as to the public as part of the IPR’s Public Lecture Series.

On joining the IPR, Kit says: "I am delighted to be joining IPR as a Visiting Policy Fellow at this crucial moment for both people and the planet. With numerous elections across the globe, a rollback on green ambition, resource scarcity and conflict and increasing fiscal constraints it’s a challenging time for progressive green policies. This is compounded by increasingly severe climate change impacts, ecosystem degradation and increasing inequality. As such there is no more important time to be fostering ambitious and progressive policy change. I really appreciate the opportunity to be working with the many bright minds and networks across IPR and to be able to support the faculty, its staff and students on developing the positive policy choices that are so urgently needed."

On the appointment, Nick Pearce, Director of the IPR, adds: “We are delighted to welcome Kit Vaughan to the IPR. His insights and vast experience in global climate change policy bring valuable expertise to our sustainability work and the ActNowFilm project.”