JxCat decide en Berlín investir president a Puigdemont telemáticamente antes del 14 de mayo

JxCat ha decidio en Berlín investir telemáticamente a Carles Puigdemont como presidente de la Generalitat antes del 14 de mayo, utilizando la reforma de la Ley de Presidencia que aprobó el viernes el Parlament.

El portavoz de la formación, Eduard Pujol, ha asegurado que no quieren nuevas elecciones y ha abogado por agotar la vía Puigdemont. Pero en el caso de que no sea viable la investidura de Puigdemont, Pujol ha apostado de nuevo por Jordi Sànchez como posible candidato alternativo, aunque ha asegurado que durante la reunión no se ha puesto sobre la mesa el nombre de ningún otro candidato distinto a Puigdemont, desmintiendo también los rumores que apuntaban a Elsa Artadi como candidata alternativa a la presidencia de la Generalitat.

Con esta decisión, que quedará convertida en papel mojado en cuanto se admita el recurso contra la ley de investidura telemática, JxCat gana tiempo y pretende poner la pelota en el tejado del Gobierno español. Pero, sobre todo, lo que pretende es poner a ERC contra las cuerdas empujando al presidente del Parlament, el republicano Roger Torrent, a desobedecer al Tribunal Constitucional. No olvidemos que Torrent es quien tiene que poner la fecha para realizar la sesión de la investidura cuando ya solo quedan 18 días para que se disuelva el Parlament de manera automática si no hay Govern.

Japón vuelve a la energía del carbón: construirá 36 nuevas centrales en la próxima década

SCIENCE.- Most of the world is turning its back on burning coal to produce electricity, but not Japan. The nation has fired up at least eight new coal power plants in the past 2 years and has plans for an additional 36 over the next decade—the biggest planned coal power expansion in any developed nation (not including China and India). And last month, the government took a key step toward locking in a national energy plan that would have coal provide 26% of Japan's electricity in 2030 and abandons a previous goal of slashing coal's share to 10%.

The reversal is partly a result of the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which punctured public support for atomic energy. Critics say it also reflects the government's failure to encourage investment in renewable energy. The coal revival, they say, has alarming implications for air pollution and Japan's ability to meet its pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which account for 4% of the world's total. If all the planned coal plants are built, it will "be difficult for us to meet our emissions reduction goals," Minister of the Environment Masaharu Nakagawa noted earlier this year.

Not long ago, coal was on its way out in Japan. In 2010, coal plants accounted for 25% of Japan's electricity, but the powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) planned to reduce that share by more than half over 20 years. The ministry counted on nuclear power to pick up the slack, with its share of the nation's electricity set to increase from 29% in 2010 to 50% by 2030.

But the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident forced a reassessment. All 54 of Japan's reactors were shut down pending compliance with new safety standards. Just seven have restarted. Utilities have turned to liquefied natural gas and coal, which surged to provide 31% of the country's electricity in 2014.

In many other nations, natural gas has replaced coal as a fuel source because gas costs less. But in Japan, "coal is cheap," says Takeo Kikkawa, an energy economist at Tokyo University of Science and a member of an METI advisory council on energy. That's because the nation must import natural gas in its relatively expensive liquefied form.

The new energy plan would cement coal's central role. Endorsed on 26 March by an METI advisory council, and likely to be adopted by the Cabinet later this year, it calls for nuclear plants to be restarted, boosting their share of electricity generation to between 20% and 22% by 2030. Renewable energy's share would rise slightly, to between 22% and 24%, with solar energy alone accounting for 7%. But fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—would provide 56%.

That reliance on coal will make it difficult for Japan to fulfill its pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26% below 2013 levels by 2030, and by 80% by 2050. Those cuts will be even harder to achieve if now-shuttered nuclear power plants aren't restarted.

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Las mujeres jóvenes son el grupo social más de izquierdas y las mujeres mayores el más de derechas

Las mujeres jóvenes son más de izquierdas que los hombres, mientras que las mujeres mayores son más de derechas. Un estudio plantea que la menor religiosidad de las jóvenes explicaría los cambios.

THE CONVERSATION.- Young women across Western Europe and Canada are more left wing than their male counterparts, according to new research I carried out that also shows among older voters women more likely to be right wing than men.

We already know that younger people are often more likely to vote for left-wing parties than their older peers, but it seems this trend is particularly pronounced among women. Younger women are the most left wing in their voting habits and older women the most right wing when we compared voters by age and gender. This is shown in a study using data on over 40,000 people from the World Values Survey/European Values Study in Western Europe and Canada, 1989-2014.

This trend is summarised in the graph below. Negative numbers indicate more men voting for a left-wing party in a given country. Positive numbers indicate more women voting for a left-wing party. In almost all countries, women born after 1955 are more likely to vote for left-wing parties than men of the same age group. Conversely, in many countries, women born before 1955 are less likely to vote for left-wing parties than their male peers.

How people vote. Author provided

The research also showed that the gender gap in left-wing voting became larger for each new birth cohort. So, for example, the difference between women and men in left-wing voting was even greater for those born 1975-85 than it was for those born 1965-75. This suggests that over time we should expect women to become more and more left wing relative to men, as younger, more left-wing cohorts of women replace older, more right-wing cohorts in the population.

A woman takes part in a march for family values in Poland. EPA

The analysis shows that the decline of religiosity is crucial to explaining the trend. Older women are more religious and their religiosity is also more important for their vote choice compared to younger women. Religious voters are more likely to hold conservative social values and attachments to religious parties. This means that older women are more likely to vote for parties on the right – especially Christian democrat parties. Similarly, they are less likely to vote for parties on the left.

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