Overview
- The UN General Assembly, which voted Friday, approved the Togolese 'Correct the map' resolution by 164 votes in favour, six abstentions and one against, with the United States as the sole no vote.
- The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection but calls on governments, international organisations, schools and technology companies to prefer Equal Earth and other area-preserving maps when showing relative land size.
- Mercator, created in 1569 for navigation, preserves direction not area and makes high-latitude regions look larger while shrinking equatorial regions; Africa is actually about 14 times the size of Greenland, a distortion Equal Earth corrects.
- Supporters led by Togo and the African Union framed the vote as a move for fairer representation and better teaching, while the U.S. described the initiative as an ideological project, reflecting the political split in coverage.
- Because UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, adoption will be gradual and voluntary, and practical practice will likely keep Mercator for navigation while encouraging Equal Earth–style maps in classrooms, media and digital platforms.