UN General Assembly backs resolution to adopt Equal Earth map projection
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The UN General Assembly voted 164-to-1 to encourage the use of the Equal Earth projection, a map that more accurately reflects the size of continents, while the United States opposed the measure.
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Friday to support a resolution urging member states to adopt the Equal Earth cartographic projection, which presents continental landmasses in proportion to their actual surface area. The measure, championed by a group of African nations, received backing from 164 countries; the United States voted against it and six states abstained.
Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, who led the initiative, said maps “guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions,” adding that the resolution “reaffirms African reality.” The resolution notes that the traditional Mercator projection, created in 1569 for navigation, distorts relative sizes by inflating northern regions and compressing equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear larger than Africa and South America.
According to the UN text, Africa spans about 30.3 million square kilometres, roughly the combined area of the United States, China, India and most of Europe, yet it appears comparable in size to Greenland on Mercular maps. Latin America, Oceania and South Asia together cover about 64 million square kilometres, more than 40 percent of the world’s land surface, while Europe measures 10.2 million square kilometres.
France, a co-sponsor of the resolution, announced it would move away from the Mercator projection, with Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stating that the new map “does not change the world, but correcting a distorted representation is already an act of truth.” The United States’ representative, Yaryna Ferencevych, argued that the debate “is the reason this institution is losing its credibility,” suggesting the focus should be on contemporary issues rather than historic map designs.
Equal Earth, developed in 2018 by cartographers Bojan Savrić, Tom Patterson and Bernhard Jenny, preserves the relative surface areas of continents while approximating their globe-shaped outlines. The UN resolution is non-binding and aims to encourage the adoption of this projection in educational and official contexts worldwide.