Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.

In this podcast, we'll talk about zero hunger, one of the most pressing of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and yet one that will most surely be missed by 2030.

Stay with us for more and more thorough analysis of current and future challenges.

The second Sustainable goal seeks to end hunger and malnutrition in the world,

as well as to promote sustainable agriculture to be able to feed an increasingly populated and hungry planet.

But intentions are in stark contrast with reality.

Aggravated by the effects of the pandemic and Russia's war on Ukraine, hunger and

malnutrition are rising dramatically across the world.

Yes, they are.

Just to give you some figures, in 2020, over 800 million people in the world faced chronic hunger,

the highest level since 2014. And Russia's war in Ukraine risks increasing this number by

7 to 13 million in 2022 and 2023. Let's hear the UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez.

Thirty-six countries count on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of their wheat-in ports,

including some of the poorest and most vulnerable countries of the world.

And prices were already on the rise, but the war has made a bad situation far worse.

As prices climb, so thus hunger and malnutrition, especially for young children.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization predicted that by 2030, under current trends,

this number may fall to 660 million people, which is still far from the objective of zero hunger set in the SDG2.

And those predictions were made before Russia's invasion.

Furthermore, first the pandemic and now the impact of Russia's war against Ukraine

have exacerbated negative trends in other SDG-2 targets

and pre-existing distortions in food systems, where the hidden costs of food imbalances to deal

...