diff --git a/cogl/cogl-debug-options.h b/cogl/cogl-debug-options.h
index a73d7e1f6..1c0bd5bee 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-debug-options.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl-debug-options.h
@@ -127,6 +127,12 @@ OPT (DISABLE_BLENDING,
      "disable-blending",
      "Disable blending",
      "Disable use of blending")
+OPT (DISABLE_NPOT_TEXTURES,
+     "Root Cause",
+     "disable-npot-textures",
+     "Disable non-power-of-two textures",
+     "Makes Cogl think that the GL driver doesn't support NPOT textures "
+     "so that it will create sliced textures or textures with waste instead.")
 OPT (SHOW_SOURCE,
      "Cogl Tracing",
      "show-source",
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-debug.c b/cogl/cogl-debug.c
index 99049a6ee..94c276a91 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-debug.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl-debug.c
@@ -69,7 +69,8 @@ static const GDebugKey cogl_behavioural_debug_keys[] = {
   { "disable-texturing", COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_TEXTURING},
   { "disable-arbfp", COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_ARBFP},
   { "disable-glsl", COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_GLSL},
-  { "disable-blending", COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_BLENDING}
+  { "disable-blending", COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_BLENDING},
+  { "disable-npot-textures", COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_NPOT_TEXTURES}
 };
 static const int n_cogl_behavioural_debug_keys =
   G_N_ELEMENTS (cogl_behavioural_debug_keys);
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-debug.h b/cogl/cogl-debug.h
index e9029afb2..9a390b4a8 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-debug.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl-debug.h
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@ typedef enum {
   COGL_DEBUG_SHOW_SOURCE      = 1 << 22,
   COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_BLENDING = 1 << 23,
   COGL_DEBUG_TEXTURE_PIXMAP   = 1 << 24,
-  COGL_DEBUG_BITMAP           = 1 << 25
+  COGL_DEBUG_BITMAP           = 1 << 25,
+  COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_NPOT_TEXTURES = 1 << 26
 } CoglDebugFlags;
 
 #ifdef COGL_ENABLE_DEBUG
diff --git a/cogl/cogl.c b/cogl/cogl.c
index 9f35468a7..e21b088b0 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl.c
@@ -444,6 +444,12 @@ cogl_get_features (void)
   if (G_UNLIKELY (cogl_debug_flags & COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_GLSL))
     ctx->feature_flags &= ~COGL_FEATURE_SHADERS_GLSL;
 
+  if (G_UNLIKELY (cogl_debug_flags & COGL_DEBUG_DISABLE_NPOT_TEXTURES))
+    ctx->feature_flags &= ~(COGL_FEATURE_TEXTURE_NPOT |
+                            COGL_FEATURE_TEXTURE_NPOT_BASIC |
+                            COGL_FEATURE_TEXTURE_NPOT_MIPMAP |
+                            COGL_FEATURE_TEXTURE_NPOT_REPEAT);
+
   return ctx->feature_flags;
 }