September 5: The United Nations has taken a major step toward changing the way the world is represented on maps, backing the use of the Equal Earth projection to provide a more accurate comparison of the actual sizes of continents.
Under the new approach, Africa would appear significantly larger, while Europe and North America would look comparatively smaller than they do on the widely used Mercator projection.
The UN General Assembly adopted the proposal on September 4, with 164 countries voting in favour and the United States voting against it. Six other countries abstained.
The resolution calls on UN member states to consider replacing the long-used Mercator projection with the Equal Earth projection. Developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, the Mercator map was designed primarily to assist maritime navigation and has since become one of the most influential map projections in modern history.
Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey, one of the initiative’s leading proponents, said maps are far more than tools for displaying geographical information. They also influence education, imagination and the collective way people understand the planet.
“Maps are not completely neutral,” Dussey argued, warning that repeatedly presenting a distorted image of the world can create misconceptions that may persist across generations.
Why the traditional map is being challenged
One of the major limitations of the Mercator projection is that while it preserves the general shape and angles of landmasses, it does not accurately maintain the relative areas of continents.
The distortion occurs because the Earth’s spherical surface must be transformed onto a flat map. As a result, regions closer to the North and South Poles appear disproportionately larger than areas near the Equator.
Europe and North America therefore appear considerably larger than their actual land areas, while Africa and South America appear relatively smaller.
In 2018, a group of cartographers developed the Equal Earth projection to address this problem. The method is designed to preserve the relative areas of continents and regions as accurately as possible, including Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania.
Bojan Šavrič, one of the map’s creators, told AFP in 2025 that the Equal Earth projection maintains the relative proportions between continents while attempting to represent their shapes on the Earth’s curved surface as accurately as possible.
US objects, France backs the change
The United States has opposed the UN initiative.
Ahead of the vote, US representative Yariana Ferencovich criticised the proposal, arguing that instead of focusing on pressing global challenges, the UN was spending time discussing a 16th-century map, reparations and what she described as “intellectual justice.”
She also warned that such initiatives could undermine confidence in the United Nations.
France, however, has expressed support for the new projection. On September 4, the country announced that it would no longer use the Mercator projection.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the traditional map makes the United States, Russia and China appear disproportionately large and influential compared with Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Greenland, he noted, can also appear almost as large as Africa despite being far smaller in reality.
Changing a map will not change the world itself, Barrot acknowledged. But correcting a longstanding distortion and presenting a picture closer to geographical reality is an important step, he said.
Analysts have linked France’s support for the new mapping approach to its recent efforts to strengthen relations with African countries, particularly former French colonies.
The UN initiative is therefore being viewed not merely as a cartographic adjustment, but also as part of a broader debate over how geographical representation can shape perceptions of power, importance and inequality around the world.
Source: Arab News.