"Instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity, or good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th century and their role in promoting reparations and cognitive justice," Ferencevych said Friday during the 114th Plenary meeting.

"Resolutions like this one and the ideological agenda they promote are barnacles on our work here and the reason this institution is losing its credibility," she added.

Ferencevych was referring to the Mercator projection, created in 1569 to aid maritime navigation. To this day, it is seen as the traditional world map and is used in many school textbooks and atlases.

It enlarges land masses near the poles and reduces the apparent size of those near the equator, making Africa appear far smaller relative to Greenland and Europe than it is in reality.

Togo Foreign Minister Robert Dussey, who introduced the resolution on behalf of the African Group, said that adopting the new map would "promote projections that better preserve the true proportions of continents."

"A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world," he said. "And when our perspective becomes more just, it paves the way for greater understanding, respect and peace among nations."

The measure does not require countries or companies to abandon the Mercator projection, but it establishes the U.N.'s official backing for equal-area maps as the preferred way to depict the world.

The Mercator projection largely fell out of favor among cartographers in the 20th century because of its distortions. However, it saw a resurgence after Google Maps adopted the Web Mercator projection in 2005, with virtually every major online mapping service following suit.

Web Mercator became the standard for online maps because it allowed for smooth panning and zooming across the globe, making it well suited for interactive digital maps, according to a 2014 Cartographica study.

The United States Mission to the United Nations and the ECOSOC did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.