UN adopts Equal Earth map projection, replacing Mercator for official use

The United Nations General Assembly voted on 28 September to adopt a resolution endorsing the Equal Earth map projection as the preferred global standard for official UN cartographic products, eclipsing the long‑used Mercator projection. The motion passed with an overwhelming majority: 164 member states voted in favour, one – the United States – voted against, and six chose to abstain. The resolution calls on UN agencies, specialised bodies and affiliated programmes to transition to Equal Earth for future publications, thematic maps and digital platforms, and to phase out the Mercator projection where it remains in use.

The decision reflects a growing consensus among geographers, educators and climate scientists that the Mercator projection, devised in the 16th century for navigation, distorts the relative size and shape of continents, exaggerating the area of regions near the poles while compressing equatorial zones. Those distortions can mislead public understanding of geographic realities, particularly in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss and the distribution of economic activity. Equal Earth, introduced in 2018, preserves area proportions while offering a visually intuitive, oval‑shaped representation that balances shape and distance accuracy. Proponents argue that its adoption would improve the clarity of data visualisations ranging from carbon‑emission maps to pandemic spread diagrams, thereby supporting the UN’s mandate to present information that is both scientifically sound and accessible to a global audience.

Support for the resolution coalesced around a coalition of developing nations, environmental groups and technical bodies within the UN system. Countries from Africa, Latin America and the Asia‑Pacific region highlighted how the Mercator’s skewed portrayal can perpetuate misconceptions about the relative scale of their territories, influencing everything from tourism marketing to foreign investment. The European Union, UNESCO and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also endorsed the change, noting that a uniform projection would streamline data sharing among agencies and reduce the need for costly reprojection processes in humanitarian emergencies.

The United States stood alone in opposing the resolution, arguing that the Mercator projection remains indispensable for certain navigation and aviation applications and that a mandated switch could impose unnecessary technical burdens on agencies still reliant on legacy systems. Six nations – including Japan, Canada, Australia, Norway, Switzerland and South Korea – abstained, citing the need for further technical assessment and the potential impact on national cartographic standards. While the resolution is non‑binding, it carries symbolic weight, signalling a collective willingness among the UN’s 193 member states to modernise the visual language through which the world is understood.

For Taiwan, which participates in many UN‑related scientific and technical fora despite its ambiguous diplomatic status, the shift may have indirect implications. As a hub for advanced geospatial technology and a major exporter of satellite imagery, Taiwan’s firms and research institutes could see increased demand for tools compatible with the Equal Earth projection, especially in climate‑monitoring projects coordinated through UN agencies. Moreover, the move underscores a broader trend toward standardising data formats that could facilitate Taiwan’s integration into global supply‑chain mapping, disaster‑response coordination and environmental reporting – areas where precise, area‑accurate visualisation is increasingly critical.