The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 report said hunger affected 815 million people in 2016, or 11 per cent of the global population. At the same time, multiple forms of malnutrition are threatening the health of millions worldwide.
The report attributed the increase, which is 38 million more people than the previous year, largely to the spread of violent conflicts and climate-related shocks.
Tearfund has urged people to pay attention.
The charity's Global Advocacy and Influencing Director Dr Ruth Valerio said: "After a decade of declining levels of global hunger, this report should act as a wakeup call to all of us.
"People are being pushed further into poverty around the world because the climate is changing fast.
"There are more droughts, more floods, and less reliable rain, which makes it harder for people in poverty to feed themselves.
"The historic 2015 Paris Climate Agreement seeks to limit the rise in global temperatures to well below 2°C, but to make a significant difference to the world's hungry people; governments need to take urgent action to keep these promises."
Valero said this UN report should motivate people to be responsible about minimising their carbon footprint and to "call for peace in places where conflict leads to hunger".
The report singles out conflict, increasingly compounded by climate change, as one of the key drivers behind the resurgence of hunger and many forms of malnutrition.
It also highlighted famine in parts of South Sudan in early 2017. The UN has warned there's a high risk that it could reoccur there as well as appear in other conflict-affected places, namely northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen.
"It's a huge injustice that the poorest communities suffer the most from climate change, when they've contributed the least to the problem," Valero said.
"If we want to beat poverty, injustice and hunger we need to tackle climate change."
