The United Nations General Assembly has voted to approve a new map of the world that more accurately depicts the relative size of countries.
The resolution, proposed by African Union member states along with the Bahamas, was adopted with 164 votes in favor, while the US voted against. Six countries abstained: Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.
The initiative aims to provide a more equitable representation of the world's regions, particularly Africa, which on traditional maps often appears much smaller than its actual size.
Many maps used today are based on the Mercator projection, created in 1569 by European cartographer Gerardus Mercator. This projection is very useful for navigation, but it distorts the size of territories, especially the further away from the equator they are.
For example, on the Mercator map, Greenland appears to be almost as large as Africa, while in reality Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland. In reality, Greenland is approximately the size of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The UN resolution proposes the use of the Equal Earth projection, which was created in 2018 and more accurately represents the relative areas of continents and countries.
On this map, Africa appears significantly larger, while Europe and Greenland are scaled closer to reality. Brazil also appears significantly larger.
Supporters of the change argue that distortions in traditional maps have over the years affected how people perceive the importance and size of different regions of the world. The resolution says this has contributed to a symbolic underestimation of Africa, Latin America and South Asia.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France would move away from the Mercator projection and use representations that more accurately reflect the surface of countries. He argued that visual distortions, over time, become part of people's perception.
New Zealand has also long criticized the way it appears on world maps. Meanwhile, digital platforms like Google Maps continue to use a version of the Mercator projection, while the UN resolution calls on technology platforms to cooperate on the use of more accurate maps. /Telegraph/