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In the EU, COVID-19 and associated policy responses led to economy-wide disruptions and shifts in services demand, with considerable energy-system implications. The European Commission's response paved the way towards enhancing climate ambition through the European Green Deal. Understanding the interactions among environmental, social, and economic dimensions in climate action post-COVID thus emerged as a key challenge. This study disaggregates the implications of climate ambition, speed of economic recovery from COVID-19, and behavioural changes due to pandemic-related measures and/or environmental concerns for EU transition dynamics, over the next decade. It soft-links two large-scale energy-economy models, EU-TIMES and NEMESIS, to shed light on opportunities and challenges related to delivering on the EU's 2030 climate targets. Results indicate that half the effort required to reach the updated 55% emissions reduction target should come from electricity decarbonisation, followed by transport. Alongside a post-COVID return to normal, the European Green Deal may lead to increased carbon prices and fossil-fuel rebounds, but these risks may be mitigated by certain behavioural changes, gains from which in transport energy use would outweigh associated consumption increases in the residential sector. Finally, the EU recovery mechanism could deliver about half the required investments needed to deliver on the 2030 ambition.

With the EU policy context fast evolving in the light of recent challenges, such as COVID-19, there is a need to guide and scientifically underpin key policymaking decisions to ensure that ambitious targets are realised. In this context, this deliverable presents a set of EU scenarios that achieve the 55% emission reduction target by 2030 and net zero by 2050, on top of a realistic current policies baseline, essentially ensuring that EU effectively manages its contribution towards achieving the Paris Agreement target. Produced by a diverse set of models in a multi-model setup, the scenarios are assessed in terms of their implications on key climate, economy, and energy indicators, as well as their impact on the member-state and sectoral level. Key results including the role of key mitigation options su h as renewables, electrification, carbon capture and storage, negative emissions technologies, and hydrogen are validated from the l ns of stakeholder input, as elicited in a series of national stakeholder workshops in Europe. Finally, the analysis further delves into niche modelling areas, including updates on the current policies baseline scenario in the light of COVID-19 and the “Fit for 55” package, long term strategies for the Agriculture Forestry and Land-Use sector, and the evaluation of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Background: Mental health challenges continue to impact Canadians, with major depression, bipolar disorder and substance use among the leading causes of disability. Depressive disorders are often associated with diminished motivation. In contrast, substance use has been described as a “motivated behaviour”, where use of drugs is associated with specific goals; motivation may therefore help explain health behaviours like vaping. This thesis studies motivation and mental illness, by assessing treatments for patients who lack motivation, and characterizing motives for behaviour. Methods: A pilot trial (RCT) was conducted to determine the feasibility of a trial to test the effects of behavioural activation (BA) in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) (n=20). The full RCT was conducted to test the effectiveness of BA (n=169). Next, a protocol for a systematic review is described which explores outcomes used in trials for bipolar disorder type 1. Finally, a mixed-methods study was undertaken to identify vaping perceptions in patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) who vape (n=41). Results: The pilot RCT demonstrated the feasibility for a full trial. The full RCT revealed that behavioural approaches may produce improvements in depression and quality of life (QoL) for patients with diminished motivation. Finally, the mixed-methods study identified 14 themes, revealing that vaping is convenient, common among youth, and a tool for smoking cessation. Discussion: The pilot and full RCT trials reveal that BA has positive effects on depression and QoL in patients with depression, specifically showing significant improvements compared to waitlist. The mixed-methods study of vaping provides a lens through which vaping behaviours in the OUD population can be understood, generating evidence which can inform cessation efforts. Conclusions: These works highlight how motivation can be intervened upon through treatment, and harnessed to better understand health decisions, with the overall objective of improving care within psychiatric populations. Dissertation Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Mental health challenges continue to impact Canadians, with major depression, bipolar disorder and substance use among the leading causes of disability. Depression and bipolar disorders are often associated with diminished motivation. Substance use, however, has been described as a “motivated behaviour”, where the use of drugs is associated with specific goals, such as motivations to reduce negative feelings, achieve pleasure, and perhaps most importantly, avoid withdrawal. By assessing potential treatments for patients who lack motivation, and characterizing patient motives for health decisions like vaping, the following thesis aims to study motivation and mental illness from several perspectives. Study findings suggest that behavioural approaches can produce meaningful improvements for patients with diminished motivation, and identify several motivators for engagement with vaping behaviours, both of which have implications for mental illness treatment and policy building. Taken together, this work aims to generate evidence to improve treatment and enhance harm reduction approaches.

Additional File 1. PRISMA 2009 checklist.

Additional file 1. Table S1. PRISMA Research Checklist.

Additional file 2. Table S2. Search Strategy.

Additional file 2. Search strategy.

The alarming global warming risk has pushed for global consensus on the decarbonisation of the energy systems to achieve a low carbon future. In this context, it is necessary to invest in the deployment of emergent renewable energy technologies to accelerate the decarbonisation path of the national energy systems. The recent achievements in technology innovation for two mature renewable energy technologies, onshore wind and solar photovoltaic are generally recognised by decision-makers. However, this is not enough and most of current energy systems remain dependent on fossil-fuel resources to satisfy growing energy demands. Cost reductions are required across many more renewable technologies but the dynamics of how to achieve these cost reductions are poorly understood. Deeper insights into the impacts of energy technology innovation on cost reductions are essential in order to accelerate the development and deployment of emerging renewables energy technologies. This thesis both highlights and addresses the current knowledge gap in our understanding of technology innovation, in the quantification of the drivers of technology cost reduction and in the innovation needs to accelerate technology cost changes. The core of the thesis consists in linking together distinct fields of knowledge in an interdisciplinary manner: on one side the theory of technology cost reduction drivers and the energy technology innovation system framework, and on the other side analytical models to quantify the drivers of cost reduction and identify the innovation needs required to accelerate cost reductions. The thesis firstly develops an understanding of the role of energy technology innovation on technology cost reductions. It explores the impacts of innovation along the different stages of development of a technology and identifies the main drivers of technology cost reductions. In so doing, the thesis also reveals the methods used to quantify multiple drivers of cost reduction and their analytical findings. The thesis then investigates a new method to quantify technology cost reduction drivers based on an advanced bottom-up cost model for onshore wind. The disaggregation in cost components and techno-economic variables developed in this method generates clearer results than current approaches in the literature can provide. This includes improving the causality link between costs components reduction and drivers and providing insights into the impacts of variables related to technical aspects and to manufacturing processes. The thesis highlights the current limitations of attempts to incorporate energy technology innovation impacts into energy system optimization models, the main tools used to inform policy-makers on future climate actions. It further proposes a novel approach to explore technology innovation within current energy system optimization models. This approach links an energy system model with a historical innovation analysis, focusing on the prospects of wave energy development in Ireland. The combination of these two methods generates insightful results regarding the innovation needs required to accelerate technology innovation for wave energy that could not be captured with a single-method approach. The key contributions of this thesis are the enrichment of our understanding of technology innovation, new insights and alternative improved methodologies to quantify technology costs reduction changes allowing to move beyond one-factor analyses, and novel methods to investigate the innovation needs required to accelerate technology cost reduction for emerging energy technologies. Moreover, an example of potential impact on the research community, this thesis lead to discussion between energy modellers and innovation practitioners about the contribution of technology innovation in energy system models.

Additional file 1. “PRISMA-P 2015 Checklist” and contains PRISMA-P checklist.

Additional file 1. “PRISMA-P 2015 Checklist” and contains PRISMA-P checklist.

Additional file 1. PRISMA-P 2015 Checklist. This file is submitted in .pdf format and shows adherence to the PRISMA-P guidelines.

Additional file 1: PRISMA 2009 Checklist.

Additional file 1. PRISMA-P 2015 Checklist. This file is submitted in .pdf format and shows adherence to the PRISMA-P guidelines.

Additional file 1. CONSORT checklist.

Additional file 1: PRISMA 2009 Checklist.

Additional file 1. CONSORT checklist.