Climate scientists believe Australia's obligations under the Paris climate commitments will be "directly undermined" by the CSIRO temporarily cutting 350 jobs.
Days after the CSIRO announced the restructure, Australian and international climate scientists in Melbourne warned the cuts would cripple the research body's climate research.
Professor of atmospheric science at University of Melbourne, David Karoly, says while the existence of climate change has been proven - the reason the CSIRO cited for the restructure - regional research is still required to fully understand its effects.
"Some of the obligations under the Paris commitments was that science on the impact of climate change need to be enhanced," Prof Karoly told reporters on Monday.
"That cannot be done without CSIRO involvement."
With him was UK Met Office's Climate Monitoring and Attribution boss Peter Stott, who said climate change put people's livelihoods and huge amounts of money at stake, so properly understanding how to adapt was essential.
Other scientists said talk that universities could take up the slack for the CSIRO was not possible under current funding models.
In Canberra, Bureau of Meteorology chief Rob Vertessy told a Senate committee the CSIRO job cuts would leave "holes" in joint programs such as the Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator.
Last week, CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall said the body wanted to refocus on improving productivity in industry, the impact of "digital disruption", health and new technologies in agriculture.
The federal government said the CSIRO's realignment would take roughly two years and funding on climate change mitigation adaptation research would be maintained.
