Why the US Stood Alone Against the UN's New World Map

After the UN endorsed the Equal Earth map, attention has turned to why the United States cast the lone vote against it and six countries abstained.

The UN General Assembly has endorsed the Equal Earth projection, which shows Africa and other equatorial continents closer to their true size than the 16th-century Mercator map does. The resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by the African Union, passed with 164 member states in favor. Only the United States voted against it, while six countries — Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine — abstained. The measure is non-binding: it does not ban Mercator or impose a replacement, but encourages governments, schools and institutions to switch to a projection that depicts landmasses in their true proportions.

A near-unanimous vote is unusual enough, but the lone dissent from the United States stands out because even close US partners — including France and the UK — supported the measure. The US did not argue that Mercator is more accurate. According to NewsOne, American representative Yaryna Ferencevych, deputy US representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, argued the resolution went beyond fixing map proportions, calling it part of a 'radical ideological project' and criticizing its references to reparations and 'cognitive justice' as undermining the UN's credibility. i24NEWS reports that the US described the initiative as 'unnecessary,' and notes its vote as among those opposed to the map.

The case for change rests on a well-documented geometric problem. Mercator, designed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to help European navigators at sea, enlarges regions near the poles while shrinking equatorial ones. On Mercator maps, Greenland and Africa appear roughly the same size, though Africa is about 14 times larger — big enough, campaigners note, to contain the US, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Europe with room to spare. Geographers like Syracuse University professor Mark Monmonier say Mercator is useful only for navigation, and the 2018 Equal Earth projection follows the Earth's curvature to show continents in true proportions.

Advocates argue the dispute is not about cartography trivia but perception. Togo's Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told delegates that 'a map is never neutral' and that maps guide education and shape collective perceptions of peoples and continents. Africa No Filter, a lead campaign group, said it wants accurate maps 'in schools, textbooks, newsrooms, businesses and on the digital platforms billions of people use every day.' Critics of Mercator say its distortions minimize the development needs and potential of equatorial countries. NewsOne reports the UN resolution characterized the correction as an act of 'cognitive justice and memorial reparation.'

The six abstentions were not random. NewsOne reports, citing the Kyiv Post, that Ukraine was sympathetic to the broader goal of accuracy but warned that adopting Equal Earth without safeguards could create ambiguity over Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory depicted on some versions of the map — for instance, one version depicted temporarily occupied Crimea as separate from the rest of the country. That objection links a map standard to live territorial disputes, which is precisely the kind of perception problem the resolution's sponsors argue old maps create.

Because the resolution is non-binding, adoption will happen country by country. France has already announced plans to stop using the Mercator map, with Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot saying that 'correcting a representation that distorts it is already an act of truth.' i24NEWS notes the measure could gradually push schools, government websites and digital platforms toward proportional projections. Campaigners behind the roughly 11,000-signature 'Correct the Map' petition, per i24NEWS, now aim at classrooms and tech platforms, while the African Union's 54 member states adopted Equal Earth in February, setting the pace for institutional uptake worldwide.