diff --git a/src/iso19111/internal.cpp b/src/iso19111/internal.cpp
index 4810202d..14fb8d83 100644
--- a/src/iso19111/internal.cpp
+++ b/src/iso19111/internal.cpp
@@ -242,6 +242,15 @@ bool ends_with(const std::string &str, const std::string &suffix) noexcept {
 double c_locale_stod(const std::string &s) {
 
     const auto s_size = s.size();
+    // Ensure that empty strings are parsed as 0.0, matching the behaviour of
+    // <cstdlib>'s strtod
+    // Without this patch, initialisation in Cartopy fails when an empty string
+    // is passed to this function and an invalid argument exception is thrown.
+    // This exception is not triggered in the non-Emscripten build.
+    if (s_size == 0) {
+        return 0.0;
+    }
+
     // Fast path
     if (s_size > 0 && s_size < 15) {
         std::int64_t acc = 0;