Climate researcher rejects being sacked for refusing to fly

BERLIN: A climate researcher hit back against his dismissal from a German think-tank after refusing to take a flight back from a fact-finding mission in Papua New Guinea.

Gianluca Grimalda was informed of his dismissal in mid-October by his employer, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), in a letter seen by AFP on Friday. No reason for the termination was given in the letter.

A few days before, the 51-year-old social scientist had received an ultimatum from the institute, insisting he return to Germany by plane. “I´m not going to catch a plane because for me it´s unreasonable,” Grimalda told AFP, who refused the demand to travel. The carbon emissions from the return flight back would have been greater than those of an average person over an entire year, said Grimalda.