New Delhi | September 5, 2026: In a landmark move with both cartographic and symbolic significance, the United Nations General Assembly has backed an African-led initiative to promote the Equal Earth projection, a world map designed to represent the relative sizes of continents more accurately.

The resolution, spearheaded by Togo and supported by African countries, was approved by an overwhelming 164 votes in favour, one against and six abstentions. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.

🌍 AFRICA TO APPEAR CLOSER TO ITS TRUE SIZE

At the heart of the initiative is the Equal Earth projection, which corrects one of the most familiar distortions associated with the traditional Mercator world map.

On Mercator maps, land masses located farther from the Equator appear disproportionately large. As a result, Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa, even though Africa is roughly 14 times larger in actual area.

The Equal Earth projection maintains a more realistic comparison of continental areas, making Africa, South America, South Asia and other equatorial regions appear substantially larger, while high-latitude regions such as parts of Europe and North America appear smaller in relative comparison.

🗺️ FROM MERCATOR TO EQUAL EARTH

The Mercator projection was developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, primarily for maritime navigation.

Its major advantage was that it allowed sailors to plot constant compass bearings as straight lines. However, that navigational benefit comes with substantial distortion of the relative size of land masses, particularly toward the poles.

The Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018, was specifically designed to provide a more visually familiar world map while preserving the relative areas of continents much more accurately.

🇺🇳 WHAT THE UN RESOLUTION ACTUALLY DOES

Importantly, the UN decision does not legally ban the Mercator projection.

The resolution encourages UN member states, international organisations, educational institutions and other users to consider adopting projections such as Equal Earth that provide a more accurate representation of continental land areas.

This means Mercator maps can continue to be used where they are technically appropriate, particularly for navigation and other specialised purposes.

The impact of the resolution is therefore expected to be strongest in education, public information, institutional mapping and digital cartography.

🇹🇬 TOGO LEADS AFRICAN PUSH

The campaign was driven by Togo and backed by the African Union and African states.

Togo argued that maps are not merely technical tools but also influence how people understand the world.

Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told the General Assembly that maps shape education and collective perceptions, arguing that distorted representations can reinforce inaccurate ideas from one generation to another.

For African advocates, the issue therefore goes beyond cartography. They see the initiative as part of a broader effort to challenge historical and cultural perceptions in which Africa has often appeared visually smaller and less prominent than its actual geographical scale.

🇺🇸 US VOTES AGAINST

The United States was the sole country to oppose the resolution.

Washington criticised the initiative as an ideological exercise and questioned whether the UN General Assembly should devote attention to historical cartographic issues instead of pressing international challenges.

The US representative argued that the resolution was connected to a broader ideological agenda and could undermine the credibility of the UN.

🇺🇦 UKRAINE RAISES A DIFFERENT CONCERN

One of the six countries that abstained was Ukraine, which raised concerns over how the Equal Earth projection depicts territories currently occupied by Russia.

Ukraine’s UN representative said Kyiv could not support the resolution in its existing form because of concerns related to the depiction of Ukrainian territory and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This highlights that even a seemingly technical issue such as map projection can intersect with highly sensitive questions of politics, sovereignty and international law.

📚 POTENTIAL IMPACT ON SCHOOLS AND DIGITAL MAPS

The most visible effect of the resolution could eventually be seen in classrooms and digital platforms.

Governments and educational institutions could increasingly use Equal Earth or similar equal-area projections when teaching students about continents, geography and global demographics.

The initiative also encourages cooperation involving international organisations, mapping institutions, academia and technology companies, particularly to strengthen mapping capabilities in developing countries and Africa.

🌐 A MAP CHANGE WITH GLOBAL SOUTH SIGNIFICANCE

The overwhelming vote gives the campaign considerable political weight, even though the resolution itself is non-binding.

Supporters argue that the way the world is visually represented can influence perceptions of relative importance, size and geography. For Africa, correcting the visual imbalance is being presented as part of a broader effort to ensure that the continent’s actual geographic scale is properly recognised.

At the same time, cartographers point out that no two-dimensional map can perfectly represent a three-dimensional globe. Every projection involves some compromise involving area, shape, distance or direction.

⚡ WHY THIS MATTERS

The UN vote is therefore less about simply replacing one map with another and more about how the world chooses to represent itself.

With 164 countries backing the initiative, the Equal Earth projection has received a major international endorsement. But the Mercator projection is not disappearing overnight, and its specialised navigational applications remain important.

The bigger message from the vote is symbolic: geography is not just about drawing borders and continents—it can also shape how societies perceive the size, importance and place of different regions in the world.

**In short: the UN has backed a new way of looking at the world—one that puts Africa closer to its true geographical scale.**