14 Leaders The Economist July 17th 2021
governments had already taxed those emissions. In 2018 the
European Commission said that would be “clearly unmanage
able”. Not much has changed since.
The eu’s new plan applies only to select industries which at
present are protected using subsidies. The products involved,
such as cement and fertiliser, are commonplace. Even so, the
plan relies on arbitrary rules. Where the carbon intensity of a
foreign producer’s processes cannot be estimated they will be
assumed to be as dirty as the worst 10% of European companies.
Incumbents are rubbing their hands at the prospect of out
siders drowning in paperwork. Some members of the European
Parliament are trying to amend the plan to favour local firms
(see Free exchange). John Kerry, America’s climate envoy, has
said that the United States is also looking at carbon border taxes.
That is indefensible unless America implements a proper car
bon price at home.
The imfhas an alternative idea to tariffs: a globally negoti
ated minimum carbon tax which varies according to gdp.But it
is not clear that it is achievable. William Nordhaus, a Nobel
prizewinning environmental economist, thinks willing coun
tries should form a climate club within which carbon is priced
and then simply levy flat punitive tariffs on those countries
which refuse to join.
It is just about possible to imagine a successful path to a glo
bal carbon price that involves tariffs. But any such plan is
fraught with the risk of capture and protectionism. Govern
ments must tread with care—while also recognising that failing
to price carbon adequately may be the greatest danger of all.n
E
ight yearsagoLanceArmstrong,thewinnerofanunpre
cedented seven Tours de France, admitted to using perform
anceenhancing drugs. His confession bookended the “heroic
age” of doping in cycling. Between the 1990s and the mid2000s
drug use was widespread and blatant. Doping is harder to get
away with now than in Mr Armstrong’s day. But cycling’s reputa
tion has never fully recovered. Fans watching this year’s Tour,
due to finish in Paris on July 18th, discuss drugs as much as they
discuss tactics or which riders are on form. Fairly or not, suspi
cion dogs every race.
It is not just cycling. Doping is common in many sports (see
Science & technology section). The Tokyo Olympics start on July
23rd. They will take place without Russia, banned last year for
falsifying data in the aftermath of the exposure, in 2015, of an
enormous statesponsored doping programme. The pandemic
will force athletes to compete in empty stadi
ums. Lockdowns, for their part, have disrupted
the regimen of regular drug tests to which they
are subject. Reduced scrutiny will have benefit
ed cheats from all countries. If estimates from
former officials are to be believed, more than a
thousand of the 11,000 athletes at the games
might be chemically enhanced.
The earliest Olympic doping tests were in
1968. The apparent intractability of the problem leads some lib
erals to throw up their hands and suggest removing the restric
tions entirely. Humans are a technological species, after all.
Physics is already allowed to boost performance—think of light
er bikes, or springy shoes—so why not let chemistry rip, too?
However, many doping drugs have grave sideeffects. Ath
letes dosed with steroids by the East German authorities during
the cold war suffered problems including severe liver damage
and stunted growth. Women—for whom the drugs were most ef
fective—underwent the irreversible development of male char
acteristics such as deep voices and body hair. A freeforall
would hand victory to those most prepared to take reckless
quantities of dope. Adult athletes would not be the only ones to
suffer. Sports careers begin in childhood, under the dominant
eye of ambitious coaches with much to gain and nothing to lose.
Better,then,totrytoimprovepolicing.Stamping out drugs
completely is no more plausible than stamping out burglary. But
antidoping efforts have made a difference. Drugtakers in all
sports have to be subtler and more careful than they once were.
Three things would improve the system further.
The first is a change of emphasis. The science of antidoping
has become sophisticated. Tests can detect drugs at levels of just
one part per trillion. But intelligence work can be just as useful.
Whistleblowers, suspicious behaviour and tipoffs from phar
maceutical companies have all helped uncover doping scandals
in the past. Such efforts should be enhanced.
That will require more money, the second change. The World
AntiDoping Agency (wada) is funded by governments and
sports bodies. Its annual budget is $40m, less than some top ath
letes earn. The national agencies that implement wada’s rules
have even less to get by with. Sponsors and
sports federations are rich enough to bump that
up considerably.
The third and biggest task is to bring in new
faces. Sports governance can be a chumocracy
at best; outright corrupt at worst. Catching too
many dopers risks tarnishing the product that
sports federations and commercial sponsors
sell. That creates strong incentives not to “spit
in the soup”. Control of antidoping agencies should be handed
to outsiders, such as lawyers or former policemen. The agencies
themselves should be as independent as possible, as with the
new Athletics Integrity Unit, which polices antidoping inde
pendently of World Athletics, the sport’s governing body.
Change is coming in any case. A new extraterritorial anti
doping law tries to assert American criminal jurisdiction over
any event at which American athletes or companies are present.
How well it will work is unclear. Antidoping relies on interna
tional cooperation, and other countries are unlikely to appreci
ate America throwing its weight around like a GrecoRoman
wrestler—especially when its domestic sports (no strangers to
doping) are exempt. But the idea might at least encourage re
form. The alternative, for all sports, is the corrosivedoubt under
which cyclists in today’s Tour are obliged to pedal.n
As athletes arrive in Tokyo for the Olympics, doping is still common. The system needs reform
A cloud of suspicion
Doping in sport