Jump to contentAllNewsSportCultureLifestyleThe UN General Assembly is set to vote on an African Union-backed resolution urging the world to move away from the traditional Mercator map projection. Led by Togo, the campaign advocates adopting equal-area designs such as the 2018 Equal Earth map to accurately reflect the true scale of continents.The Mercator projection distorts landmasses away from the equator, incorrectly depicting Africa as similar in size to Greenland, despite being 14 times larger. Togo foreign minister Robert Dussey argued that maps shape global perceptions and asked that Africa's geographic reality and contribution be duly recognised. If the resolution passes, Togo will host an implementation event in Lomé with Unesco, the African Union, and technology companies including Google Maps. In fullUN to vote on adopting new world map that shows true size of all countriesMore bulletinsThank you for registeringPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Africa wants to overhaul the world map. Here’s why
Jump to contentAllNewsSportCultureLifestyleThe UN General Assembly is set to vote on an African Union-backed resolution urging the world to move away from the traditional Mercator map projection. Led by Togo, the campaign advocates adopting equal-area designs such as the 2018 Equal Earth map to accurately reflect the true scale of continents.The Mercator projection distorts landmasses away from the equator, incorrectly depicting Africa as similar in size to Greenland, despite being 14 times larger. Togo foreign minister Robert Dussey argued that maps shape global perceptions and asked that Africa's geographic reality and contribution be duly recognised. If the resolution passes, Togo will host an implementation event in Lomé with Unesco, the African Union, and technology companies including Google Maps. In fullUN to vote on adopting new world map that shows true size of all countriesMore bulletinsThank you for registeringPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
