The cutbacks are the latest twist in a national climate policy that has been erratic for the better part of a decade. Experts say Australia is suffering more than most places from the effects of climate change — as well as from some of the world’s highest per-person emissions — but that its leaders seem unable to make up their minds about how to combat it.

After years of political wrangling, a left-leaning government managed to put in place laws that required large companies to pay for carbon emissions. But in 2013, Tony Abbott, then the leader of the conservative Liberal Party, won an election after promising voters he would scrap the tax. Now, the changes at the science agency are raising questions about whether Australia is trying to run away from understanding the basic facts of what is happening to the climate.

The 350 layoffs are to take place over two years. Officials have not specified which jobs will be cut, but members of the climate science team said they expected to lose 70 to 100 scientists, half to three-quarters of their number. The Oceans and Atmosphere division, which analyzes data from both Cape Grim and Argo, has been targeted for the deepest cuts.

Csiro’s chairman, David Thodey, insisted, in a response to the petition from scientists, that there would be “no break in atmospheric measurements at Cape Grim as a result of these changes.” Dr. Marshall, for his part, said the agency would “continue our contribution” to Argo, the global effort to track temperature and other conditions in the world’s oceans, a fundamental task for understanding how quickly the planet is changing.

But scientists who work for them sharply disagree.

Paul Fraser, who led the division’s greenhouse gas team, said that if the job cuts proceeded, they would “have a severe impact on global programs.” John Church, an agency expert on rising sea levels, said bluntly, “You cannot lose 100 out of a team of 130, or even 70 from 130, and still maintain all the functions.”