SYDNEY, Australia — In a surprising about-face, the Australian government said on Thursday that new resources would be allocated to climate research at the country’s science agency, months after the announcement of staff cutbacks that scientists said would jeopardize Australia’s important role in the field.  The staff reduction at the agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or Csiro, had drawn stinging criticism from scientists around the world, with a petition calling its work “critical and irreplaceable” in global climate science.  Among other contributions, the agency plays a leading role in an important ocean-monitoring program called Argo, and the location of its Cape Grim research station in Tasmania makes it uniquely valuable in gauging greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  The overall number of climate scientists at Csiro would rise to about 115 from 100, but that would be well short of the 140 working there before the cuts were announced in February.  The government also ordered the agency to devote an additional $2.8 million to climate science each year, with the money to come from other programs in the agency.  “Climate science is important, it’s significant, it’s critical to our long-term planning,” the science minister, Greg Hunt, said in a radio interview. “Climate science will be a bedrock function for research of the Csiro, which is really one of the world’s great institutions.”  Australia’s recent droughts and frequent wildfires are often cited as stark illustrations of the adverse effects of global warming. But senior ministers in the country’s conservative coalition government have often aggressively challenged climate science in recent years, especially when Tony Abbott, a vocal climate-change skeptic, was prime minister.  After Mr. Abbott took office in 2013, the country scrapped a tax on carbon emissions and set goals for reducing emissions that scientists and environmental groups dismissed as inadequate.  He was ousted last year in a party leadership challenge by Malcolm Turnbull, who was critical of Mr. Abbott’s climate views. Mr. Turnbull led the conservative coalition to a new election victory last month.  When the staff cuts were announced in February, the science agency’s chief executive, Larry Marshall, said the focus of the remaining staff members would shift away from understanding and forecasting climate change and toward finding commercially viable ways to cope with its effects.  About 3,000 scientists from more than 60 countries responded by signing a petition saying the staff reductions at the agency would be “devastating.”  Among those set to be laid off was John Church, one of the world’s leading authorities on rising sea levels. Dr. Church said on Thursday that his status remained unchanged despite Mr. Hunt’s announcement.  “Csiro will focus on the coastal impacts of rising sea levels,” Dr. Church said. “How they can do that without knowing how far sea levels will rise, I don’t know.”  Mr. Hunt, the science minister, left unclear specifically how the additional resources would be distributed. Csiro said on Thursday that no one was available to comment.  Andy Pitman, of the Center of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of New South Wales, said, “We are none the wiser as to whether those international programs are under threat or have been given a reprieve,” referring to the Argo and Cape Grim.  But Alan Finkel, Australia’s chief scientist, said the agency would remain devoted to those initiatives. “I have no doubt the government is genuine in its commitment to confirming the importance of climate science research in Australia,” he said. “The focus should be on the way forward.”
The measures do not completely reverse deep staff cuts to the country’s science agency that drew protests from scientists, but they appear to signal a turnaround.