UN approves new map showing Africa’s true size, US opposes

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to encourage governments, schools, and tech companies worldwide to stop using maps that make Africa look smaller than it is.

Adopted on Friday, the resolution is the culmination of an African-led campaign against the 16th-century Mercator projection, the most widely used map in the world.

Only the United States voted against the decision supported by 164 member states. Six countries – Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine – abstained.

Togo led negotiations, building on an African Union-backed campaign. Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said a fair map does not change the world’s geography, “it changes how we see the world”.

The resolution says correcting distortions is an act of “cognitive justice and memorial reparation” and references Equal Earth, developed in 2018, as a projection that more accurately represents relative size.

The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection, but urges the use of the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps to teach the limitations of any flat map in representing a spherical planet.

The U.S. said the resolution “mocks the work and purpose” of the U.N., calling the proposal an attempt to update cartographic proportions and part of “the more radical ideological project it belongs to.”

Washington’s representative cited the mention of reparations and “cognitive justice”, saying such initiatives like it “barnacles on” the UN’s work and the reason the institution is losing its credibility.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, however, indicated Paris was planning to abandon Mercator for its maps of the world, aligning France with the broader effort advocated by the African Union.

Ukraine expressed its support for amending historical distortions affecting Africa and other Global South areas, but protested how some maps using Equal Earth portray Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.