The United Nations General Assembly on Friday, September 4, approved a resolution titled "Fix the Map," presented by Togo and supported by the African Union, which promotes a more accurate representation of land areas on world maps, particularly of Africa. The resolution was approved with 164 votes in favor, one against (United States) and six abstentions (Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine).
The United States justified its vote against by calling the initiative part of a "radical ideological project," arguing that the UN should focus on genuine international peace and prosperity problems rather than debating 16th-century cartographic projections. The criticism came in the same week that President Donald Trump proposed renaming the Strait of Hormuz as "Trump Strait" and signed an executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America."
Advocates of the resolution argue that the Mercator projection, developed in the 16th century by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator and still in use today, makes Africa appear much smaller than it really is, while visually exaggerating regions near the poles. Greenland and Africa appear similar in size on maps, when in reality Africa is about 14 times larger. The resolution advocates abandoning the Mercator projection and replacing it with the Equal Earth projection, which shows countries and continents in proportional sizes.
Togo's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Dussey, said that distortions on maps have caused significant consequences over time, contributing to symbolically minimizing Africa's size and creating an unbalanced view of global geography. The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection nor mandate a replacement, but encourages governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to adopt the Equal Earth projection. If the change is implemented, France, the United States and Russia would become considerably smaller on maps, while Africa, Latin America and South Asia would gain space. The African Union celebrated the resolution as "a historic step toward accurate and equitable global cartographic representation." France announced it would abandon the Mercator system for its world maps.
