Climate expert ‘sacked’ after refusing flight to Germany over carbon emissions

Gianluca Grimalda: ‘IfW seems to ignore that we have entered the Anthropocene era and that the most important Earth ecosystems are close to collapse.’ Photograph: Gianluca Grimalda

A climate researcher who refused to comply with his employer’s demand to fly at short notice back to Germany from Bougainville, off the coast of Papua New Guinea, says he has been fired from his job.

Gianluca Grimalda is still waiting in Bougainville for a cargo ship, set to depart on Saturday, to begin his return journey to Europe, after six months investigating the impacts of climate breakdown and globalisation on the island’s inhabitants.