UN Retires Mercator Map That Shrinks Africa

The Mercator projection was drawn in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator to help European sailors navigate the oceans. Rendering a globe on a flat sheet always distorts something, and Mercator's compromise was area: landmasses near the poles are inflated, while those straddling the equator are compressed. Greenland therefore looks roughly the size of Africa, although the continent is fourteen times larger than the Danish territory. Historians and geographers have argued for years that the result flatters the global north, and some campaigners call the effect cartographic colonialism. The German historian Arno Peters advanced a rival projection in 1973, and the African Union's 54 member states endorsed Equal Earth in February. Robert Dussey, Togo's foreign minister, said before the vote that the question was scientific rather than political. He had earlier told a UN briefing that a map is never neutral.

France declared its support beforehand: foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed his ministry would abandon Mercator for the Eckert IV projection, a close relative of Equal Earth. Explaining the sole vote against, the American representative called the resolution superfluous. Yaryna Ferencevych, a US representative at the UN, said the Assembly should address international peace and prosperity rather than 16th-century map projections. Togo plans an implementation meeting in Lome early next year with UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the African Union and firms including Google Maps. A #CorrectTheMap petition backing the change has gathered some 11,000 signatures. The African Union endorsed the campaign in August 2025 and asked Togo to lead its adoption.