NEW YORK-(MaraviPost)-2026 The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution encouraging countries and institutions to promote the Equal Earth projection as a more accurate way of representing the relative size of the world’s continents and landmasses.
According to Reuters, The Associated Press (AP), United Nations-related reporting and documents from Togo and the African Union, the resolution was championed by Togo with strong backing from African countries seeking to address long-standing misconceptions created by widely used world maps.
The measure received overwhelming support at the General Assembly, with 164 countries voting in favour, one voting against and six abstaining.
The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.
At the centre of the debate is the Mercator projection, one of the world’s most familiar map formats and a standard feature in classrooms, publications and digital platforms for generations.
Developed in the 16th century primarily to assist maritime navigation, the Mercator projection converts the Earth’s spherical surface into a flat map.
While the system remains valuable for navigation, it significantly distorts the apparent size of landmasses, particularly in regions closer to the North and South poles.
The distortion is especially visible when comparing Africa and Greenland. On a typical Mercator map, Greenland can appear similar in size to Africa, despite Africa being approximately 14 times larger in actual land area.
Supporters of the UN resolution argue that such distortions have contributed to widespread misunderstandings about the geographical scale and relative importance of different parts of the world.
The Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018, was designed as an equal-area map that more accurately preserves the proportional size of continents and countries.
Unlike the Mercator projection, it seeks to ensure that landmasses closer to the equator and those near the poles are represented in a way that better reflects their actual areas.
The UN resolution encourages governments, schools, international organisations, media institutions and digital platforms to consider using more geographically accurate representations of the planet.
However, the resolution does not impose a legal obligation on countries or institutions, nor does it prohibit continued use of the Mercator projection.
The Mercator system remains particularly useful for navigation and other specialised purposes.
Togo led the diplomatic campaign behind the resolution, building on broader support from the African Union and African nations.
The initiative forms part of a wider effort to challenge historical perceptions about the size of Africa and other regions of the Global South.
The General Assembly’s decision is therefore being viewed not simply as a technical discussion about cartography, but as part of a broader debate about how maps shape global understanding, education and perceptions of the world.
By encouraging wider consideration of the Equal Earth projection, supporters hope future maps will offer a clearer picture of the true relative size of the world’s continents — including Africa, whose geographical scale has often been visually diminished on traditional Mercator maps.
Keywords: UN General Assembly Equal Earth projection, Mercator projection, Africa true size, world map distortion, Togo UN resolution, Equal Earth map, African Union geography campaign.
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