Brussels, (Unib Rashid) – United Nations member states have overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling for greater use of world maps that more accurately represent the relative size of continents.

The resolution, approved by the UN General Assembly on Friday, encourages countries and international organisations to consider adopting the Equal Earth projection, which provides a more proportionally accurate representation of the size of land masses.

The initiative was introduced by Togo and several other African countries and received broad international support, including from the member states of the European Union.

A total of 164 countries voted in favour, while the United States voted against the resolution. Six countries abstained.

The resolution seeks to encourage a move away from the widely used Mercator projection, developed by Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator in the 16th century. While the Mercator projection was designed primarily for navigation and remains useful for that purpose, it significantly enlarges areas located at higher latitudes, making countries and continents closer to the poles appear considerably larger than they are in reality.

Supporters of the resolution argue that the way the world is visually represented can influence how people understand geography, particularly through education and media.

“Maps shape our understanding of the world,” Togo’s Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Dussey said during the debate.

He argued that maps influence education, imagination and the collective perception of the planet, adding that they are therefore not entirely neutral.

“If they present a distorted view of our planet, they risk passing on an incorrect representation from generation to generation,” Dussey said.

The Equal Earth projection was developed to preserve the relative areas of continents and countries more accurately, while maintaining a visually familiar global map. Unlike the Mercator projection, it does not dramatically exaggerate the size of land masses near the poles.

The UN-backed initiative is therefore aimed not at eliminating the Mercator projection entirely, but at encouraging the use of more geographically representative maps where accurate comparisons of land area are important.

The resolution highlights the continuing debate over how maps shape perceptions of geography and the relative size and importance of different parts of the world.