Blair takes job to boost ‘prestige quotient’

Tony Blair's decision to take on yet another high-profile unpaid role - leading an international campaign to cut carbon emissions by 50 per cent before 2050 - has led to speculation that he is either preparing himself for not being chosen as the EU's first president (he'll be too busy anyway) or that he is desperately building his "prestige quotient" in an effort to persuade Angela Merkel and other detractors that there is a do-gooding heart beating beneath that money-grubbing exterior.

The carbon emissions initiative will be launched in Japan this weekend with the ambition of a "true and global deal… that needs to include America and China". Blair, who says his role is to "guide it politically", will be working with a panel of international experts from China, Japan, the United States and Europe, including Sir Nicholas Stern, who conducted a review for the Government on the economic costs of climate change.

Blair will not be paid for this job, nor for another role helping Rwanda attract investment. But his part-time consultancy roles with American investment bank JP Morgan and Switzerland's second-biggest insurer Zurich Insurance are expected to earn him more than £7m this year.

However, if he does land the EU presidency - a new post created under the controversial Lisbon treaty - it pays a mere £200,000 a year, and he will have to give up his profitable consultancies.