Controversies of justice, scale, and siting: The uneven discourse of renewability in Austrian waste-to-energy development

Many geopolitical jurisdictions, including the European Union, demonstrate a growing commitment to mitigating climate change through a transition to renewable energy production. While ambitious targets and the transformations they inspire should be celebrated, it is nevertheless increasingly important to understand how renewable energy policies and discourses are being mobilized in the rollout of controversial energy technologies such as waste incineration. This paper engages analytical lenses from environmental justice scholarship on discourse, scale, and waste siting controversies to contribute to the emerging literature on the competing ways that actors frame controversial energy technologies. Specifically, drawing on case study research conducted in Austria from 2013 to 2015, it asks in what contexts, and by whom, are discourses of renewability enrolled in relation to waste-to-energy planning and management? Findings demonstrate the divergent ways in which Austrian and European Union policy elites and local residents frame waste incineration vis-a-vis its renewability. Ultimately, the article argues that framing discrepancies between policy elites and local residents are a reflection of procedural injustice.