João Pedro Soeiro de Matos Fernandes was born in Águeda, in 1967.

He graduated in Civil Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto in 1991 (Territorial Planning option) and completed a Masters in Transport at the Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, in 1995.

Between 1990 and 1995 he worked in the North Region Coordination Commission (Spatial Planning), having been the coordinator of the transport sector.

He was Deputy Secretary of State for Natural Resources between 1995 and 1997 and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State to the Minister for the Environment between 1997-99.

He was Director of Quarternaire Portugal, Consultoria para o Desenvolvimento, SA, between 1999 and 2005.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of Portos do Douro and Leixões between April 2005 and May 2008 and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Portos do Douro and Leixões between April 2008 and May 2012.

He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Port of Viana do Castelo from January 2009 to May 2012.

He was President of the Associação dos Portos Portugueses, between 2008 and 2010.

He was a professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico (Infrastructures) and at the Instituto Superior de Transportes (Energy and Environmental Impacts of Transport). He has lectured as a guest in Masters at the Universities of Porto, Técnica de Lisboa and Naples. Between 2012 and 2013 he was advisor to the Board of Directors of the companies Terminais do Norte and Portos do Norte (Grupo Manica), assuming management functions at the Port of Nacala, in Mozambique.

He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Águas do Porto from 2014 to 2015.

He was Minister of Environment in the XXI Constitutional Government until October 2018, later being Minister of Environment and Energy Transition.