Finance
State investigating campaign-finance complaints against Lucido
Michigan Secretary of State elections officials are investigating whether Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido violated the state Campaign Finance Act by using county resources for election activities.
The regulatory section of the Bureau of Elections with the Department of State provided a letter to inform Republican Lucido of its “examination” of allegations by Democratic activist Mark Brewer. The bureau falls under Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat.
“It is important to understand that the department is neither making this complaint nor accepting the allegations as true,” says the April 15 letter on Secretary of State letterhead.
Officials say Lucido has 15 days from the date of that letter to respond if he wishes.
Lucido has denounced the complaints as a “political attack” and countered by pointing out violations committed while Brewer was chairman of the state Democratic Party.
Any response by Lucido will be provided to Brewer, who will then be given a chance to rebut those claims, officials said.
After that, “the department will determine whether there may be reason to believe that a violation of the MCFA has occurred,” the letter states.
The state says it could reach a conciliation agreement with Lucido, conduct a hearing or refer the matter to the state Attorney General for enforcement.
Brewer, a lawyer who led the state party of 18 years, alleges in a complaint, which includes exhibits, that Lucido used a county employee to send an email newsletter to county employees that included a heading linked to his campaign web site, and emblazoned his campaign web site on tote bags distributed at a county-sponsored event. Brewer also provided an email in which a Prosecutor’s Office intern says she was resigning because she was performing campaign work for Lucido.
Brewer also filed two complaints with the county Ethics Board accusing the prosecutor of similarly violating the county Ethics Ordinance by using of a photo of himself in his county office in Mount Clemens on his campaign web site and allowing a former Sterling Heights City Council candidate to use two photos of he and Lucido in the prosecutor’s office for the candidate’s campaign.
The board approved advancing the complaints to the investigative stage, after which it will determine whether probable cause exists to conduct hearings on the allegations. Ultimately, if the board determined violations occurred, it could fine Lucido up to $500 per violation.
Lucido has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the activities alleged to the board.
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Finance
World Bank drops climate finance target amid US pressure
The World Bank is ditching its commitment to steer 45 percent of its spending toward projects with climate benefits, after facing pressure from the Trump administration.
The move, announced Monday following a meeting of the bank’s board of directors last week, marks a victory in President Donald Trump’s effort to purge climate policies from U.S. foreign policy. His administration has described the target as “distortionary” and “nonsensical.”
The bank preserved its broader Climate Change Action Plan — of which the 45 percent target was a key metric — just days before it was set to expire at the end of June. In addition to directing money toward climate projects, the plan provides technical support for helping countries reduce their greenhouse gas pollution and adapt to rising temperatures.
“We will retire the 45% climate co-benefits target,” the World Bank Group said in a statement, noting that it had “done significant work in answering client demand and needs.”
The bank’s work on climate “is and will remain firmly client driven, supporting them in delivering on their own ambitions as set out in their national plans and NDCs,” the statement added, referring to the nationally determined contributions countries submit under the Paris Agreement.
The decision to drop the climate finance target follows months of pressure from the Trump administration. People with knowledge of the negotiations said the U.S. was firm that the target must go despite other countries indicating their support for the bank’s climate goal. The U.S. has sway over the bank’s decisions as its largest shareholder.
Beyond the finance target, the Climate Change Action Plan also provides diagnostic reports on countries’ climate and development goals and aims to align lending with the Paris Agreement, which calls for preventing temperature rise from surpassing 2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution.
The bank said it would honor a board request to undertake an independent evaluation of the climate plan to determine if it’s helping countries grapple with rising temperatures. The decision effectively extends the plan beyond its expiration at the end of June.
The climate target was supported by many of the bank’s shareholders. It’s also been a prominent signal of the bank’s support for climate action at a time when the impacts of rising temperatures are accelerating.
“This is way, way away from where we should be for a responsible financial architecture,” said one official from a developed country who was directly involved in the negotiations and was granted anonymity to describe internal discussions.
The bank will continue to track and report on the amount of money going to projects with climate co-benefits. It exceeded its own target last year by directing 48 percent of its financing to climate-related projects.
Other climate targets embedded in agreements that govern different arms of the bank will remain, including one for the International Development Association, the bank’s fund for the poorest countries.
Multilateral development banks play a key role in global climate negotiations, where wealthy countries have committed to helping provide $300 billion a year for poorer countries by 2035. That no longer includes the United States, which has left the Paris Agreement and will exit the underlying United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change early next year.
“Targets send enormous signals about an institution’s direction of travel,” said Clemence Landers, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. “At the same time, it’s a sign of the times and the World Bank is doing its level best to not rankle its largest shareholder.”
She believes the bank will continue financing renewable energy projects in countries that want them, despite having dropped its climate target.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if the bank continued to have an extremely robust clean pipeline with or without this target,” said Landers.
The bank says retiring the 45 percent target is part of its shift from a focus on “inputs to outcomes.” It will continue to monitor and report net greenhouse gas emissions across its projects and countries’ ability to withstand climate risks.
“We will continue to report to the Board on progress, including on climate co-benefits, and to contribute to our related joint MDB efforts,” the statement said, referring to its role as a multilateral development bank. “We will explore and discuss ways to better structure our engagement on adaptation, nature and pollution.”
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