The Christian relief and development charity was reacting to news from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) that global temperatures beat 2015's exceptionally high readings.
Paul Cook, Director of Advocacy says: "We can't beat poverty and injustice unless we beat climate change, and we are the only generation who will have the chance to do that.
"That's why it is urgent that we take action."
The WMO found the global average temperature in 2016 was 1.1 celsius above pre-industrial levels and approximately 0.07 celsius above 2015's record.
Explaining how temperatures only reveal part of the picture, secretary general Petteri Taalas, said: "Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations surged to new records. Both contribute to climate change.
"We have also broken sea ice minimum records in the Arctic and Antarctic. Greenland glacier melt - one of the contributors to sea level rise - started early and fast.
"Arctic sea ice was the lowest on record both at the start of the melt season in March and at the height of the normal refreezing period in October and November."
The results have prompted fresh calls for a swift focus away from fossil fuels, in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases and tackle rising temperatures.
Tearfund's Paul Cook went on to say: "It reminds us how rapid climate change is, and how it brings more intense droughts, storms and floods - and more people going hungry.
"Increasingly, in the course of Tearfund's work we hear comments such as this from a church leader in Malawi: 'We had two weather patterns which could be specified clearly - winter (the cold season) and summer (the hot season). It feels like we have one season (hot) now.'"
The new research uses data from the UK's Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, as well as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Nasa.