Miguel Bastos Araújo has been appointed by the President of the Portuguese Republic, António José Seguro, as one of the five members of the Council of State personally designated by the Head of State.
The appointment was announced by the Presidency of the Republic on 16 April 2026. The five citizens designated by the President are Alberto Martins, Isabel Capeloa Gil, Maria do Carmo Fonseca, Miguel Bastos Araújo and Nuno Severiano Teixeira. Under the Portuguese Constitution, these presidential appointees serve for the duration of the President’s mandate.
The Council of State is the political advisory body of the President of the Portuguese Republic. It is chaired by the President and includes, by virtue of office, the President of the Parliament of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the President of the Constitutional Court, the Ombudsperson, the Presidents of the Regional Governments of the Azores and Madeira, and former Presidents of the Republic elected under the Constitution. It also includes five citizens appointed by the President and five citizens elected by Parliament. In the current Council, the members elected by the Assembly of the Republic are Leonor Beleza, André Ventura, Carlos César, Carlos Moedas and Pedro Duarte.
Its role is to advise the President in the exercise of presidential functions. The Council must be heard on particularly significant constitutional matters, including the dissolution of Parliament, the dismissal of the Government in constitutionally defined circumstances, and decisions concerning war and peace. It may also be convened whenever the President wishes to seek advice on matters of national importance. Its meetings are not public, and the Council meets when convened by the President; there is no fixed statutory number of ordinary meetings per year.
President António José Seguro stated that his choices were guided by “merit, independence and pluralism”. Referring to the inclusion of Maria do Carmo Fonseca and Miguel Bastos Araújo, both recipients of the Prémio Pessoa, the President highlighted their scientific and intellectual excellence as an asset for the country’s strategic reflection, particularly in the areas of health and climate change. He also noted that the appointed members bring expertise in science and health, defence and security, climate change, education and culture, as well as the safeguarding of the democratic rule of law.
Miguel Bastos Araújo’s appointment is especially significant because it brings environmental science and climate-change expertise into one of the highest advisory bodies of the Portuguese state. It is the first time that a scientist primarily associated with environmental sciences has been personally designated by the President to serve on the Council of State. At a time when climate change, biodiversity loss and ecological degradation increasingly shape security, economic resilience, public policy and Portugal’s international responsibilities, this appointment signals a broader understanding of the forms of expertise needed for strategic national reflection.
Miguel Bastos Araújo is a biogeographer whose work focuses on biodiversity, climate change and the modelling of species and ecosystems under global environmental change. He is a Research Professor at the National Museum of Natural Sciences of the Spanish Research Council, Professor at the University of Évora, and a leading international scholar in environmental sciences. In 2018, he received the Prémio Pessoa, one of Portugal’s most prestigious distinctions in science, culture and public life.
The appointment recognises not only an individual scientific career but also, most importantly, the growing importance of environmental knowledge in high-level public decision-making. It reflects the view that the challenges facing democratic societies are no longer confined to conventional political, economic or security domains, but increasingly depend on long-term scientific understanding of climate, biodiversity and the relationship between societies and the natural systems on which they depend.