UN adopts new world map to amend Mercator distortion

Last week, the UN General Assembly adopted a new world map.

Most current maps use the Mercator projection to represent the size of different continents, which has been criticised for distorting the real scale of some regions, including Africa.

During the sitting, 164 states voted in favour of adopting a more accurate map, such as the Equal Earth projection.

The U.S. voted against the resolution, while six others abstained from the vote.

Africa

World maps generally use the Mercator projection, a scale developed in 1569 by the cartographer Geradus Mercator.

As the earth is a spherical, three-dimensional object, attempts to flatten it will create some distortion.

The Mercator projection scale reduces the size of some land masses, while others are enlarged.

For example, Greenland appears a similar size to the African continent, despite being 14 times smaller in reality.

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Last week, the UN Group of African States introduced a resolution to "correct" world maps, e.g. with the Equal Earth projection.

World maps

Of the 171 member states present for voting on the resolution, 164 voted in favour.

Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine abstained from voting, while the U.S. was the only state to vote against the resolution.

U.S representative Yaryna Ferencevych told the General Assembly the change "cannot be separated from the much larger and more radical ideological project it belongs to."

She said resolutions like these are "barnacles on our work here".

Result

"Correcting the map means recognising that every region of the world deserves to be represented accurately and with dignity... A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world. And when our perspective becomes more just, it paves the way for greater understanding, respect and peace among nations."

Togo Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Dussey on behalf of the UN Group of African States.