UN backs African campaign for fairer world map

The United Nations General Assembly voted on Friday to support an African-led initiative promoting world maps that represent countries and continents according to their correct relative areas. The proposal, led by Togo, passed with 164 votes in favour, one against and six abstentions.

The initiative promotes the Equal Earth projection as an alternative to Mercator for general world maps. Mercator’s 1569 design remains useful for navigation because constant compass bearings appear as straight lines, but it greatly enlarges land closer to the poles. Greenland can consequently look comparable to Africa, although Africa has roughly fourteen times its area.

Equal Earth was introduced by cartographers in 2018. It preserves relative area while keeping continental outlines comparatively recognisable, though it still distorts some shapes and distances. No flat map can reproduce every property of the round Earth accurately.

The vote is the latest stage of the Correct the Map campaign. The African Union formally adopted Equal Earth in February and urged member states to revise national curricula. The UN resolution is non-binding, leaving implementation to governments, schools, publishers and technology companies.