Madam President,

Our delegation welcomes the intention behind this 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.

However, we would like to clarify our understanding of the scope of this resolution.

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. 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 technologically and methodologically neutral.

Our delegation supports language that encourages more accurate cartographic representation while allowing countries, institutions and cartographers to determine which projection is most appropriate for their specific needs.

Therefore, our position is limited to the principle of encouraging equal-area approaches where the objective is to preserve the relative sizes of continental landmasses. Such an approach would preserve the resolution’s objective while avoiding an unnecessary preference for one particular cartographic methodology or endorsement of any specific projection, including the Equal Earth projection.

Thank you, Madam President.