Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) has signed up Tony Blair to provide the firm with advice on its latest climate change policy.

Blair will be part of Zurich's climate change advisory council. It comprises Zurich executives as well as external advisers, including a former US congressman and US academic.

The council will provide strategic advice on the firm's global initiative which includes a carbon management strategy and the development of products and services that minimise risks from climate change.

"There is a consensus now that the challenge of climate change is real and what we need now are the policy solutions to turn that concern into action," Blair said.

"Climate change also plays a crucial role in our local business,"  Zurich Australia's corporate responsibility manager Alice Cahill told InvestorDaily.

As part of its latest corporate responsibility strategy, the firm will develop a program to help its small to medium size business adapt to climate change-related risks.

"Our local strategy will be able to dovetail with Zurich's global initiative in climate change," she said.

The appointment of Blair was important for the group because of his involvement as Prime Minister in climate change policy, Cahill said.

In 2006 Blair commissioned the Stern Report to analyse the economic impacts from climate change.

"Zurich's work to look at how business, and in particular the insurance sector, can play its part is so crucial and that is why I welcome the chance to help them with it," Blair said.