The policy challenge of waste-to-energy: lessons from France

National policy-making is increasingly re-orienting towards the common goal of achieving effective renewable energy solutions. This paper focuses on the policy challenges of technological advances in energy recovery from waste designed to facilitate the generation of ‘clean’ renewable energy on a national scale. France is now a world leader in the promotion of this ‘new’ energy solution. The sustainability of the French approach to waste-to-energy is however threatened by its failure to successfully incorporate and engage with societal input. An assessment of policy structures reveals a crippling division between anti-incineration attitudes expressed in waste management and support displayed in energy policy making.