India votes for UN resolution on more accurate world map

United Nations: India has voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution aimed at correcting the world map to promote a "more accurate representation" of continental landmasses.

The 193-member UN General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly adopted the resolution "Correct the map": rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world's regions, particularly Africa'.

The resolution was sponsored by Togo, receiving 164 votes in favour, with abstentions from Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, and a lone vote against from the United States.


The resolution noted that the Mercator projection, designed in the 16th century for navigational purposes, remains widely used in educational, media, digital and official materials, despite the considerable distortion of landmasses to the North and South, far from the equator. The resolution also noted with "concern" that "this distortion contributes to minimising the perceived sizes of Africa, Latin America and South Asia, and perpetuating an unbalanced view of the world." In an explanation of the vote in the General Assembly, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, Raghoo Puri, said India "welcomes" the intention behind the resolution to promote more accurate and representative cartographic practices.

"We believe that maps play an important role in how societies understand geography and the relative scale of the world around us," he said. However, India clarified its understanding of the scope of this resolution, saying, "We believe that the resolution should be understood as supporting the broader use and consideration of Equal Area map projections, and not as endorsing the Equal Earth projection or any other specific map projection."

Equal Area projections are particularly relevant because they preserve the relative sizes or areas of continental and territorial landmasses, Puri said.

"This can help address distortions in perceived landmass size that arise from projections designed primarily to preserve other geographic characteristics such as shape, direction, or distance. At the same time, different projections serve different cartographic purposes. No single projection is necessarily appropriate for every application. "Therefore, we believe it is important for this resolution to remain technological and methodological-neutral. Our delegation supports the language that encourages accurate cartographic representation while allowing countries, institutions and cartographers to determine which projection is most appropriate for their specific needs," Puri said.