Scientists present latest news on climate change

Scientists say they are preparing for bad news as they review the latest data on global warming.

Katherine Richardson at the University of Copenhagen made a sombre prediction for the talks at the three-day conference starting Tuesday in Copenhagen.

"I'm sorry to tell you that I don't think we're going to change the picture painted by the IPCC. Certainly, the message from the natural science, the part of science that looks at how the climate system really works, isn't very good. "

This climate conference aims to update the science on climate change since the last U.N. report two years ago.

Some 16-hundred abstracts have been submitted from nearly 80 countries to the conference, which will be attended by the chairman of the International Panel on Climate Change.

Its conclusions will be published around June 1st and be presented to policy-makers at the U.N. climate talks in December.

At the UN climate talks, politicians will discuss a new global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.