AI Research

Three years left to limit warming to 1.5C, top scientists warn

Published

3 weeks ago

June 19, 2025

Mark Poynting

Climate reporter, BBC News

EPA A boy carries a box of bottled water on his head. He is wearing a white-coloured shirt. There is bright sunshine in a blue sky behind him, as well as trees and a road sign.

The Earth could be doomed to breach the symbolic 1.5C warming limit in as little as three years at current levels of carbon dioxide emissions.

That’s the stark warning from more than 60 of the world’s leading climate scientists in the most up-to-date assessment of the state of global warming.

Nearly 200 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above levels of the late 1800s in a landmark agreement in 2015, with the aim of avoiding some of the worst impacts of climate change.

But countries have continued to burn record amounts of coal, oil and gas and chop down carbon-rich forests – leaving that international goal in peril.

Climate change has already worsened many weather extremes – such as the UK’s 40C heat in July 2022 – and has rapidly raised global sea levels, threatening coastal communities.

“Things are all moving in the wrong direction,” said lead author Prof Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds.

“We’re seeing some unprecedented changes and we’re also seeing the heating of the Earth and sea-level rise accelerating as well.”

These changes “have been predicted for some time and we can directly place them back to the very high level of emissions”, he added.

At the beginning of 2020, scientists estimated that humanity could only emit 500 billion more tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) – the most important planet-warming gas – for a 50% chance of keeping warming to 1.5C.

But by the start of 2025 this so-called “carbon budget” had shrunk to 130 billion tonnes, according to the new study.

That reduction is largely due to continued record emissions of CO2 and other planet-warming greenhouse gases like methane, but also improvements in the scientific estimates.

If global CO2 emissions stay at their current highs of about 40 billion tonnes a year, 130 billion tonnes gives the world roughly three years until that carbon budget is exhausted.

This could commit the world to breaching the target set by the Paris agreement, the researchers say, though the planet would probably not pass 1.5C of human-caused warming until a few years later.

Graph showing rise in global air temperatures since 1850. Temperatures have risen particularly quickly since the 1970s. There are two lines in different shades of red, one showing yearly averages and one showing 10-year averages. In 2024, temperatures were more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels of the late 1800s. The 10-year average from 2015-2024 was 1.24C above pre-industrial.

Last year was the first on record when global average air temperatures were more than 1.5C above those of the late 1800s.

A single 12-month period isn’t considered a breach of the Paris agreement, however, with the record heat of 2024 given an extra boost by natural weather patterns.

But human-caused warming was by far the main reason for last year’s high temperatures, reaching 1.36C above pre-industrial levels, the researchers estimate.

This current rate of warming is about 0.27C per decade – much faster than anything in the geological record.

And if emissions stay high, the planet is on track to reach 1.5C of warming on that metric around the year 2030.

After this point, long-term warming could, in theory, be brought back down by sucking large quantities of CO2 back out of the atmosphere.

But the authors urge caution on relying on these ambitious technologies serving as a get-out-of-jail card.

“For larger exceedance [of 1.5C], it becomes less likely that removals [of CO2] will perfectly reverse the warming caused by today’s emissions,” warned Joeri Rogelj, professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London.

‘Every fraction of warming’ matters

The study is filled with striking statistics highlighting the magnitude of the climate change that has already happened.

Perhaps the most notable is the rate at which extra heat is accumulating in the Earth’s climate system, known as “Earth’s energy imbalance” in scientific jargon.

Over the past decade or so, this rate of heating has been more than double that of the 1970s and 1980s and an estimated 25% higher than the late 2000s and 2010s.

“That’s a really large number, a very worrying number” over such a short period, said Dr Matthew Palmer of the UK Met Office, and associate professor at the University of Bristol.

The recent uptick is fundamentally due to greenhouse gas emissions, but a reduction in the cooling effect from small particles called aerosols has also played a role.

This extra energy has to go somewhere. Some goes into warming the land, raising air temperatures, and melting the world’s ice.

But about 90% of the excess heat is taken up by the oceans.

That not only means disruption to marine life but also higher sea levels: warmer ocean waters take up more space, in addition to the extra water that melting glaciers are adding to our seas.

The rate of global sea-level rise has doubled since the 1990s, raising the risks of flooding for millions of people living in coastal areas worldwide.

Sea-level rise increases the chances of coastal flooding during storms

PA Media Waves crash against a sea wall, spilling onto the land. There is lots of spray from the waves. The sky is grey and on land there are street lights and buildings visible in the background. — Sea-level rise increases the chances of coastal flooding during storms

While this all paints a bleak picture, the authors note that the rate of emissions increases appears to be slowing as clean technologies are rolled out.

They argue that “rapid and stringent” emissions cuts are more important than ever.

The Paris target is based on very strong scientific evidence that the impacts of climate change would be far greater at 2C of warming than at 1.5C.

That has often been oversimplified as meaning below 1.5C of warming is “safe” and above 1.5C “dangerous”.

In reality, every extra bit of warming increases the severity of many weather extremes, ice melt and sea-level rise.

“Reductions in emissions over the next decade can critically change the rate of warming,” said Prof Rogelj.

“Every fraction of warming that we can avoid will result in less harm and less suffering of particularly poor and vulnerable populations and less challenges for our societies to live the lives that we desire,” he added.

Thin, green banner promoting the Future Earth newsletter with text saying, “The world’s biggest climate news in your inbox every week”. There is also a graphic of an iceberg overlaid with a green circular pattern.

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AI Research

2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Even Risk-Averse Investors Can Buy Without Hesitation

Published

47 minutes ago

July 8, 2025

Keith Speights

Betting big on the next hot thing can sometimes burn investors. That can be true even when the next hot thing is as exciting and promising as artificial intelligence (AI).

Concerns about being burned might cause some investors to be leery of buying AI stocks. However, this fear could result in them missing out on huge long-term returns. Are there alternatives for investing in AI that aren’t super risky? Absolutely. Here are two AI stocks that even risk-averse investors can buy without hesitation.

Image source: Getty Images.

Two AI titans

If bigger is better, you won’t find many better AI stocks than Amazon (AMZN -0.07%) and Microsoft (MSFT -0.24%). Amazon ranks as the fourth-largest publicly traded company based on market cap, while Microsoft holds the No. 2 spot. And their AI credentials are impeccable.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the global leader in cloud services, with a market share of 29%. Microsoft Azure is in second place with a market share of 22%. Both cloud platforms continue to enjoy strong growth, thanks in large part to organizations rushing to build and deploy AI models in the cloud.

Amazon and Microsoft boast partnerships with other top AI companies as well. Both companies have teamed up with Nvidia. Microsoft’s investments in ChatGPT creator OpenAI are paying off handsomely, and Amazon has invested $8 billion in Anthropic, the developer of the powerful Claude large language model (LLM).

These two AI titans are also benefiting from AI in their internal operations. Amazon is using AI to recommend products to customers on its e-commerce platform, for example, while Microsoft has rolled out OpenAI’s GPT-4 throughout its product lineup.

Why risk-averse investors should like Amazon and Microsoft

Risk-averse investors know what they’re getting with Amazon and Microsoft. Both companies are AI leaders, but they’re also much more.

Amazon and Microsoft offer tremendous financial stability. Amazon generated revenue of nearly $638 billion last year, with profits totaling over $59 billion. Microsoft’s revenue topped $245 billion, with earnings of more than $88 billion.

Each of the companies has a boatload of cash — $94.6 billion for Amazon and $79.6 billion for Microsoft.

We’ve already seen that Amazon and Microsoft dominate the cloud services market. These two companies are also leaders in other areas. Amazon reigns as the 800-pound gorilla of e-commerce with a market share of 37.6%. Microsoft’s Windows commands a 70% market share among desktop operating systems. The company’s Office 365 suite ranks No. 2 in the productivity software market.

Both companies continue to deliver solid growth. Amazon’s revenue increased 9% year over year in its latest quarter, with earnings soaring 64%. Microsoft’s revenue jumped 13% year over year, with profits up 18%.

More importantly, both Amazon and Microsoft have strong growth prospects. Each company is poised to benefit from the ongoing AI tailwind and the shift from on-premises IT to the cloud. Amazon’s e-commerce platform and Microsoft’s software products also have solid growth potential.

Not risk-free

I don’t want to leave the impression that Amazon and Microsoft don’t have any risks, though. There’s no such thing as a risk-free stock.

Both Amazon and Microsoft face significant competition despite their current market dominance, and growth could be derailed by regulators in the U.S. and in Europe. Both stocks also trade at high valuations: Amazon’s forward price-to-earnings ratio is 34.6, while Microsoft’s forward earnings multiple is 33.2. These valuations make them more exposed if they experience a significant business disruption.

However, longtime investors know that the best stocks often command premium valuations. Amazon and Microsoft are two of the best stocks, with lifetime gains of around 227,800% and 123,200%, respectively.

Although Amazon and Microsoft face some risks, I think the pros of both stocks far outweigh the cons. If you’re a risk-averse investor who wants to profit from the AI boom, I can’t think of two better picks.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Keith Speights has positions in Amazon and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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AI Research

Cognigy Leads in Opus Research’s 2025 Conversational AI Intelliview

Published

59 minutes ago

July 8, 2025

BusinessWire

Distinguished for Innovation, Enterprise Readiness, and Visionary Approach to Agentic AI

Cognigy, a global leader in AI-powered customer service solutions, has been recognized as the leader in the newly released 2025 Conversational AI Intelliview from Opus Research. The report, titled “Decision-Maker’s Guide to Self-Service & Enterprise Intelligent Assistants,” shows Cognigy as the leading platform across critical evaluation areas including product capability, enterprise fit, GenAI maturity, and deployment performance.

This recognition underscores Cognigy’s commitment to empowering enterprises with production-ready, scalable AI solutions that go far beyond chatbot basics. The report cites Cognigy’s strengths in visual AI agent orchestration, tool and function calling, AI Ops and observability, and a deep commitment to enterprise-grade control—all delivered through a platform built to scale real-time customer interactions across voice and digital channels.

“Cognigy exemplifies the next stage of conversational AI maturity,” said Ian Jacobs, VP & Lead Analyst at Opus Research. “Their agentic approach—combining real-time reasoning, orchestration, and observability—demonstrates how GenAI can move beyond experimentation into meaningful, measurable transformation in the contact center.”

Cognigy was one of the few vendors identified in the report as a “True Believer” in the evolution of GenAI-driven self-service, with tools designed to simplify deployment while giving enterprises full control. The platform’s AI Agent Manager enables businesses to create, configure, and continuously improve intelligent agents—defining persona, memory scope, and access to tools and knowledge—all through a flexible, low-code interface. Cognigy uniquely blends deterministic logic with generative capabilities, ensuring both speed and reliability in automation.

“This recognition from Opus Research is more than a milestone—it’s validation that our strategy is working,” said Alan Ranger, Vice President at Cognigy. “We’re delivering real-world, enterprise-grade automation that’s transforming contact centers. From financial services to healthcare to global retail, our customers are scaling faster, resolving issues in real time, and delivering truly modern service experiences.”

With global Fortune 500 customers and partnerships across the CCaaS and AI ecosystem, Cognigy continues to lead the way in delivering enterprise-ready AI that combines usability, speed, and impact. This latest industry acknowledgment further solidifies its position as the go-to platform for intelligent self-service.

To download a copy of the report, visit https://www.cognigy.com/opus-research-2025-conversational-ai-intelliview.

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