The USA just lately opposed a world map that mirrored the true relative sizes of nations and continents. It was the one nation that voted towards a decision offered and passed within the United Nations Common Meeting on Friday (4th September) for the adoption of the corrected world map.
The decision was launched following the African nations’ enchantment to the UN to repair the standard world map that wrongly represented the relative measurement of the African continent. International Minister Robert Dussey of Togo sponsored the “Right the Map” decision within the Common Meeting, which was backed by the African Union (AU) members.
“A map isn’t impartial. It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents on the earth is known,” Dussey mentioned whereas addressing the meeting. “The decision adopted right now reaffirms African actuality,” he added.
On Friday, the United Nations Common Meeting adopted an African proposal for a brand new world map, which reveals international locations’ true measurement relative to 1 one other.
In favor: 164
Towards: 1
Abstentions: 6 pic.twitter.com/5BE4LUiojH— UN Information (@UN_News_Centre) September 4, 2026
In line with the resolution, the brand new world map, known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection, “is a related choice for bettering the accuracy of the cartographic illustration of the world”. It says that the prevailing map not solely distorts the sizes of the continents but in addition diminishes the worldwide notion with respect to the true bodily presence of Africa, Latin America, and South Asia on the face of the Earth.
The decision states that the distortions “contribute to minimizing the extent of socioeconomic realities, infrastructure wants, growth potential, and prosperity within the Southern areas, and that they’ll gasoline prejudices within the environmental, geopolitical, and safety fields.”
The Equal Earth map was virtually unanimously adopted by the member international locations within the Common Meeting. Out of all 165 member international locations that voted on the decision, 164 voted in its favour whereas solely the US voted towards it. Six international locations abstained from voting on the decision.
Congratulations to the delegation of #Togo 🇹🇬 and the Africa Group on the adoption this morning by the #UNGA of decision A/80/L.104, “Right the Map.”
First endorsed by the African Union Meeting in February and formally handed on the United Nations right now, this… pic.twitter.com/wHxblZ8d3K
— African Union (@_AfricanUnion) September 4, 2026
Despite the fact that the decision is non-binding, it’s more likely to change the Mercator map being utilized by governments and establishments the world over with the brand new map having correct representations. The explanation why the Mercator map, which has been in use for the reason that sixteenth Century, was opposed by the African nations is that it misrepresents the scale of the African continent compared to different continents. The map reveals the scale of Africa as much like Greenland, whereas in actuality it’s 14 instances bigger.
Lots of the maps at the moment in use the world over are based mostly on the Mercator projection, which was created by European cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. The map accommodates the curvature of the Earth by making international locations close to the equator seem smaller than they’re, and the international locations nearer the poles seem bigger.
So, for instance, on the map, Greenland, which is near the North Pole, appears greater than the African landmass, which is on the Equator. Greenland is roughly the scale of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is among the 54 international locations within the African continent.
Satirically, in actuality, Africa has round 30.3 million sq. kilometres (11.7 million sq. miles) of land space, which may accommodate the US, China, India, and most of Europe.
To deal with the distortion within the sizes of continents, a workforce of cartographers created the Equal Earth projection in 2018. The Equal Earth map was adopted by the 54 members of the African Union in February this yr, stating that it “extra precisely represents the sizes of all continents, significantly Africa”.
