It shouldn't take another burst of late-autumn heat - and another is on the way for many parts of Australia - to be reminded that the world is facing what amounts to a climate emergency.

Global temperatures are off the charts so far in 2016, and we should welcome any commitment to back climate research that is protected from the whims of short-term fiscal pressures and acts from the political right which remains in denial over global warming.

However, the plan cooked up by CSIRO doesn't hide the fact that saving 40 staff within a division that holds 140 climate researchers doesn't amount to much of a salvage operation.

There are dozens of other staff whose jobs remain in limbo, even if the cuts to the key Ocean Climate Dynamics unit have been trimmed back to 13 jobs, while 32 will be lost in the Earth System Assessment unit.

The latter is home to the ACCESS climate model work and controls the Cape Grim's monitoring station.

After Tuesday's briefing by Alex Wonhas, head of energy and environment at CSIRO, staff were still unclear who will be included in the 40.

Cape Grim is outside that select group while researchers involved in climate projections and those working on the National Environmental Science Programme funded by the Environment Department are within the centre.

Certainly, the idea of a specialised centre has its merits. Similar long-range funding guarantees and a requirement to generate only about 10 per cent of their revenue have allowed scientists the UK's Hadley Centre to get on with their world-leading research.

CSIRO's answer, instead, is to press on with plans to cull "around 75" jobs from its oceans and atmosphere division although these will be shared with other units, sparing some staff. Another 70 will go from the Land and Water division that studies how our rivers and reservoirs will be affected by a shifting climate.

In other words, we are left with much the same tally of job cuts that chief executive Larry Marshall's told Senate estimates two months ago. Hardly the "win" for climate science touted by CSIRO and the Turnbull government.

And merely ring-fencing a segment of the researchers won't stop talent haemorrhaging to other, more supportive employers.

Private emails by executives released to the Senate inquiry led by Greens and Labor revealed senior managers had been encouraged by their bosses to eviscerate climate or other "public good" science within CSIRO.

It's worth recalling that the idea of a new climate centre was spawned in the days after Dr Marshall's announcement on February 4 that while "CSIRO pioneered climate research", the agency couldn't "rest on our laurels as that is the path to mediocrity".

"Our climate models are among the best in the world and our measurements honed those models to prove global climate change," the ex-venture capitalist said.

Instead, CSIRO would shift resources instead to finding ways to mitigate global warming by reducing carbon emissions and adapting to the inevitable impacts coming our way.

That promise, though, always rang hollow since many of those already researching climate adaptation were for the chop as part of cuts totalling 350, such as 100 to go in the Land and Water division. (Those overall cuts have been trimmed as of Tuesday to 275 and 70, respectively, an internal email showed.)

Chief Scientist Alan Finkel and other leading scientists immediately launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to rescue the furniture so that vital continuity and critical numbers of staff remained.

Dr Finkel understood it would be difficult to anticipate the changes for which Australia would need to prepare  if key capability to monitor and model the shifts in our oceans and atmosphere was shed. Soaring global temperature and the Paris climate accord all suggest more -  not less  - science was needed.

That the centre remains within CSIRO also marks something of a failure. Dr Finkel's effort was directed firstly to placing the centre within the Bureau of Meteorology - which relies on CSIRO models for its weather and medium-term climate forecasting.

The bureau, though, is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to hold on to vital water research funds - we will know for sure in the May 3 budget - and could only take on staff if CSIRO transferred the funds with them.

The location of the centre in Hobart suggests, too, a bias towards ocean research rather than the atmospheric modelling and monitoring work done at Aspendale in Melbourne's south-east.

Dr Marshall, who has never visited Aspendale, will attempt to assuage critics of his approach - including a lack of consultation over the new centre itself, during briefings to staff on Tuesday.

"I share with you a common drive to make Australia a better place," Dr Marshall concluded his email to staff on Tuesday. "We must never lose that sense of purpose, it is what makes CSIRO a national treasure."

Whether Dr Marshall can win over staff  - and secure an extension to his contract from Science Minister Christopher Pyne - will be among the developments to watch in coming days.

Another will be Chairman David Thodey's address to a Senate committee on Wednesday - but why he requested his session be held in camera and without CSIRO management suggests he has some uncomplimentary comments to make about Dr Marshall's plan and its execution.