France’s most popular weatherman Philippe Verdier has confirmed in a video that he has been sacked, having been suspended in mid-October for criticising top climate scientists in his new book, Climate Investigation. Verdier, who used to work for state-owned France 2, used his book to claim that publicly-funded climate change scientists have been “manipulated” and “politicized”, and that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published intentionally misleading data.

The video below shows Verdier reading the letter, with the caption stating: ‘Philippe Verdier, journalist, weatherman. Fired by France Television one month before COP 21 [The Paris Climate Change Summit]’.

Verdier has previously commented on how he believes he was suspended because the government wanted to hush up any criticism of climate change in the run-up to the summit:

“Making these revelations in the book, which I absolutely have the right to do, can pose problems for my employer given that the government (which funds France 2) is organising COP. In fact as soon as you a slightly different discourse on this subject, you are branded a climate sceptic.”

Guido can understand why they wouldn’t want anything to ruin the lovely bash they’ve got planned…