Jürgen Trittin

As Germany's federal environment minister from 1998 to 2005, Trittin negotiated the 2000 agreement with the power companies to phase out nuclear power, introduced a deposit on drinks cans that business fought for years, and steered the eco-tax on energy. The nuclear deal was attacked from both sides: as too slow by anti-nuclear activists and as an attack on industry by the opposition, which reversed it in 2010 before Fukushima reversed the reversal.