Tony Blair has taken a second big job with a leading financial player, attracted by the prospect of working on its climate-change initiative.

The former Prime Minister has joined Zurich, the Swiss company, as an adviser. The appointment, thought to be worth at least £500,000 a year, comes less than three weeks after he took a similar role with J P Morgan Chase, one of the biggest investment banks on Wall Street. That was believed to be a package worth about £2 million a year.

He will assist Zurich on “developments and trends in the international political environment”. His key interest, according to friends, was in its climate initiative, announced last week, developing products and research to combat global warming.

Zurich was unwilling to comment on how much Mr Blair would be paid and how much time he would spend working for the company, which operates in 170 countries. James Schiro, its chief executive, said that he was excited about signing up Mr Blair. He added: “His appointment sits alongside other initiatives where Zurich has partnered with external thought leaders to challenge and enhance our operational and strategic thinking.”

Mr Blair said: “There is a consensus that the challenge of climate change is real, and what we need now are the policy solutions to turn that concern into action. That’s why Zurich’s work to look at how business, and in particular the insurance sector, can play its part is so crucial and why I welcome the chance to help them with it.”

Mr Blair is also serving as an unpaid international envoy to the Middle East. His work with Zurich and J P Morgan is on top of a reported £5 million deal for his memoirs. He is also believed to earn more than £500,000 a month from speaking engagements. His spokesman said that there were no other positions in the offing. The former Prime Minister is thought to have turned down approaches from HSBC and Citigroup.

This month the Advisory Committee on Business Interests, which vets the jobs of former ministers to ensure that there is no conflict of interest, said that Mr Blair could take up the job with J P Morgan immediately, but for one year he should not be personally involved in lobbying government ministers or officials on behalf of his new employer or its clients.

On his speaking engagements it said that Mr Blair should not “draw on privileged information that was available to him as Prime Minister”.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of J P Morgan, said that Mr Blair would be enormously valuable to the company. “There are only a handful of people in the world who have the knowledge and relationships that he has,” he said. He added that it was important to both men “to try to make the world a better place and have a bit of fun doing it”.

The job was brokered by Robert Barnett, the Washington lawyer who negotiated the advance for Mr Blair’s memoirs.

A new portrait of Mr Blair, chosen by him and his wife, Cherie, has gone up in 10 Downing Street. The photograph joins pictures of other former leaders on the grand staircase.

A good earner

— Mr Blair is reported to be earning a package worth £2 million a year for working with JP Morgan and a further £500,000 a year for advising Zurich on political issues

— He can charge £100,000 to £200,000 per speech on the international lecture circuit. In November he received £240,000 to address Chinese businessmen

— He has a £4.6 million deal with Random House for his memoirs

Source: Times database

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