diff --git a/bitbake/bin/bitbake b/bitbake/bin/bitbake
index 324ee4fa53..e86d59bd62 100755
--- a/bitbake/bin/bitbake
+++ b/bitbake/bin/bitbake
@@ -214,6 +214,11 @@ Default BBFILES are the .bb files in the current directory.""")
     if configuration.bind and configuration.servertype != "xmlrpc":
         sys.exit("FATAL: If '-B' or '--bind' is defined, we must set the servertype as 'xmlrpc'.\n")
 
+    if "BBDEBUG" in os.environ:
+        level = int(os.environ["BBDEBUG"])
+        if level > configuration.debug:
+            configuration.debug = level
+
     bb.msg.init_msgconfig(configuration.verbose, configuration.debug,
                          configuration.debug_domains)
 
diff --git a/bitbake/lib/bb/__init__.py b/bitbake/lib/bb/__init__.py
index 660fd5bf5a..faa94e6c36 100644
--- a/bitbake/lib/bb/__init__.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/bb/__init__.py
@@ -74,11 +74,6 @@ logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG - 2)
 # can result in construction of the various loggers.
 import bb.msg
 
-if "BBDEBUG" in os.environ:
-    level = int(os.environ["BBDEBUG"])
-    if level:
-        bb.msg.set_debug_level(level)
-
 from bb import fetch2 as fetch
 sys.modules['bb.fetch'] = sys.modules['bb.fetch2']