The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed an African-led effort to change how the world is represented on maps, calling on governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use projections that more accurately show the relative sizes of continents.
The resolution passed on Friday by 164 votes to one, with the United States alone opposing and six countries abstaining. It promotes the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps as alternatives to the centuries-old Mercator projection, which which exaggerates the size of landmasses farther from the equator.
The nonbinding measure does not abolish Mercator or establish Equal Earth as the U.N.’s official world map. Instead, it seeks to turn an African campaign over cartographic representation into changes in international standards, education, digital mapping and maps used by governments and international institutions.
“A map is never neutral,” Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said ahead of the vote. “It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood and may, sometimes from the earliest years of schooling, perpetuate representations that do not correspond to geographic reality.”
Togo led negotiations on behalf of the African Group, building on a campaign endorsed by the African Union. The resolution describes distorted representations of continental size as contributing to the “symbolic minimization” of Africa and says correcting them can constitute an act of “cognitive justice and memorial reparation.”
The Mercator projection was developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 for maritime navigation. It preserves direction, allowing sailors to plot courses using straight lines, but does so at the expense of accurately representing area.
As a result, landmasses appear progressively larger the farther they are from the equator. Greenland, for example, can appear roughly comparable in size to Africa on a Mercator map even though Africa is about 14 times larger.
Equal Earth, developed in 2018, instead preserves the relative areas of countries and continents, though like every attempt to represent a spherical planet on a flat surface it necessarily distorts other geographic properties.
The resolution acknowledges that no projection can perfectly represent the Earth and says different projections remain appropriate for different purposes. It specifically leaves existing navigational uses of cartography unaffected.
But African governments argue that Mercator’s continued use well beyond navigation, including in education, media, official materials and digital platforms, has consequences for how the relative scale and importance of different regions are perceived.
“Africa is not asking for preferential treatment,” Dussey said. “Africa is asking that its reality, aspirations and contribution to the international system be duly taken into account.”
The resolution goes considerably further than recommending a different classroom map.
It encourages member nations and international organizations to adopt Equal Earth and other equal-area projections when the relative size of continents matters, and calls for development of international standards for more accurate representation in printed and digital maps.
It asks UNESCO, the U.N. Development Program, U.N. geospatial experts and the Office for Outer Space Affairs to work with regional organizations and academia on cartographic standards, educational curricula and authoritative geospatial information.
It also urges global technology platforms to engage with governments and regional organizations on more accurate mapping and encourages schools to teach both more accurate continental sizes and the limitations of different projections.
As the only nation to vote against the resolution, the United Nations framed the initiative as part of a wider political agenda, criticizing its references to reparations and “cognitive justice.” Its representative called the measure part of a “much larger and more radical ideological project.”
The European Union, which supported the resolution, stressed that the measure concerns the relative size of landmasses and has no bearing on sovereignty, territorial status or internationally recognized borders.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced ahead of the vote that the French government plans to abandon Mercator for its world maps.
The General Assembly also asked the Secretary-General to provide information on implementation through its 83rd session and placed the issue of accurate cartographic representation and geospatial capacity in developing countries on that session’s provisional agenda.
“Our approach is not directed against any country, continent or cartographic tradition,” Dussey said. “Nor does it seek to impose a single interpretation of the world.”
