The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on Friday morning, submitted by the African Group, calling for a correction of the world map and a rebalancing of global cartographic representation, promoting a fair portrayal of regions, particularly Africa. The resolution was supported by 164 members, with one member, the United States, voting against it, and six members abstaining: Estonia, Moldova, Ukraine, Lithuania, Serbia, and Georgia.
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The draft resolution was presented by Togo's Foreign Minister, Robert Dussey, on behalf of the African Group, as his country led the negotiations, based on a campaign supported by the African Union. The Togolese Foreign Minister emphasized that this effort was not intended to condemn the Mercatorian Plan, which he acknowledged was useful for navigation, nor to impose a single plan. He told the press, "A fair map does not change the geography of the world, but it does change our perception of it."
The General Assembly affirmed in its new resolution that cartographic distortions in the sizes of continents inherited from history have cognitive, educational, cultural, geopolitical, social and economic implications, and constitute historical biases which, if corrected, would promote recognition, justice and development, particularly with regard to Africa.
The new resolution does not prohibit the Mercator projection or impose an alternative to it, but encourages governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use the iso-Earth projection and other so-called iso-area maps when relative size is important, and to teach the limits of any flat map in representing a spherical planet.
The resolution acknowledges that the Mercator projection, widely used throughout the world, distorts the size of continental landmasses far from the equator, resulting in a relative underestimation of the size of Africa and other regions. It further states that the Equal Earth projection provides a more accurate representation of the sizes of continental landmasses and is a suitable option for improving the accuracy of cartographic representations of the world.
In its new resolution, the General Assembly stresses the need to promote more accurate and scientifically sound cartographic representations of the globe, and encourages Member States, international organizations and other relevant entities to adopt, disseminate and use the 'equal land projection' and equal-area cartographic methods that more accurately represent the actual areas of the continents, where their sizes are of great importance.
The United States, which opposed the resolution and voted against it, saw the effort as driven by far deeper political motives. The US representative stated, "This resolution makes a mockery of the work and objectives of this institution." He added that what is presented as an innocent attempt to update cartographic proportions is actually part of a larger, more radical ideological project.
The US delegate pointed to the resolution's references to compensation and "knowledge justice," describing such initiatives as "an obstacle to our work here, and the reason this institution has lost its credibility."
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