UN Backs Equal Earth Map in Africa-Led Push Against Mercator

BREAKING NEWSSeptember 7, 2026 at 7:52 PM UTC

TLDR

UN General Assembly supports move to use Equal Earth projection, led by Africa, to accurately depict continents' relative sizes.
Mercator projection, created in 16th century, distorts sizes; resolution aims to update educational and public communication maps, not navigational ones.
Togo plans to adopt Equal Earth projection in school materials by 2026 and collaborate for broader adoption globally.

The United Nations General Assembly backed a move toward world maps that show continents in their correct relative sizes, supporting an Africa-led campaign to reduce use of the Mercator projection. The resolution passed on September 4 with 164 countries voting in favor, 1 against and 6 abstaining.

Togo led the proposal with support from the African Union. The resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection, which preserves the relative area of countries and continents. The Mercator projection, created in the 16th century, enlarges land masses as they move away from the equator. As a result, Greenland can appear close in size to Africa even though Africa is about 14 times larger.

The resolution is not binding and does not call for Mercator maps to be removed from navigation. Mercator remains useful for maritime and aviation routes because it preserves direction. The UN measure focuses on maps used for education, public communication and other purposes where comparing the size of countries and continents matters.

Togo plans to change the world maps used in its school geography materials by the end of 2026. Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said the country will also work with African Union members, other governments, international organisations and technology companies to promote wider use of equal-area projections.

Equal Earth was developed in 2018 as an alternative that keeps land areas proportional while maintaining shapes that are easier to recognise than some other equal-area maps. The campaign now shifts from the UN vote to whether schools, governments, publishers and digital mapping companies change the projections they use.

Points clés à retenir

The vote does not change geography, but it could change how people see it. Every flat world map has to distort some part of the globe because a sphere cannot be placed on a flat surface without changing size, shape, distance or direction. Mercator was designed for navigation, not for comparing land area, yet it became common in classrooms and public maps. That matters for Africa because the projection makes regions near the equator look smaller compared with land closer to the poles. Africa covers about 30 million square kilometres, while Greenland covers about 2 million, but Mercator can make the 2 appear close in size. Equal Earth solves the area problem by keeping the relative size of land masses correct, though it makes other compromises in shape and distance. The UN resolution therefore does not declare one map correct for every use. It asks institutions to choose projections that fit their purpose. The larger impact may come from education and digital platforms. If schools and mapping companies adopt Equal Earth or other equal-area projections, millions of users could see a world map where Africa’s scale is represented in proportion to other continents.

Africa