The UN General Assembly (GA) has passed a resolution calling for the greater use of equal-area map projections, and in particular the Equal Earth projection, which show the different continents in their correct relative sizes. The current most widely used projection, the Mercator, exaggerates to size of the regions closer to the two poles and minimises the sizes of the equatorial regions. (However, Mercator is essential for navigation, as it is the only projection on which a course can be drawn as a straight line and which gives accurate distances between points.)

The resolution was passed with 164 votes in favour, one against, and with six abstentions. The opposing vote was from the US, while the six abstentions were by Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.

The resolution was proposed by the Group of African States, with the representative of Togo acting on their behalf. (The UN did not identify representatives by their names, but only by their countries.) The Equal Earth projection showed Africa to its true scale, much larger than in the Mercator projection.

“Our approach is not directed against any nation, any civilisation or any cartographic tradition,” he affirmed. “[We seek] to promote projections that better preserve the true proportions of continents.

“A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world,” he pointed out. “And when our perspective becomes more just, it paves the way for greater understanding, respect and peace among nations.”

In rejecting the resolution, the US representative claimed that “it cannot be separated from the much larger and more radical ideological project it belongs to,” that the GA was discussing “map projects from the sixteenth century,” and that resolutions such as this one regarding map projections were like “barnacles on our work here and the reason this institution is losing its credibility.” (The Equal Earth projection made the US look a lot smaller than it appeared in the Mercator projection.)

Ukraine did not object to the principle of the resolution, but objected to the particular map referenced by it. This was, the country’s representative explained, because that map showed areas of the country that had been temporarily occupied by Russia “in a manner that is wholly unacceptable” and not consistent with the GA resolutions regarding “the non-recognition of the attempted illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014.”

Speaking on behalf of the EU, and while supporting the resolution, the representative of Ireland highlighted that that resolution “neither addresses nor affects questions relating to sovereignty, territorial status, delimitation or internationally recognised borders of States”.