diff --git a/cogl/cogl-debug.h b/cogl/cogl-debug.h
index efb60e1ca..abe8f9e79 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-debug.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl-debug.h
@@ -72,17 +72,16 @@ typedef enum {
   COGL_DEBUG_N_FLAGS
 } CoglDebugFlags;
 
-#ifdef COGL_ENABLE_DEBUG
-
+extern GHashTable *_cogl_debug_instances;
 #define COGL_DEBUG_N_LONGS COGL_FLAGS_N_LONGS_FOR_SIZE (COGL_DEBUG_N_FLAGS)
 
+#ifdef COGL_ENABLE_DEBUG
+
 /* _cogl_debug_flags currently needs to exported outside of the shared
    library for cogl-pango. The special COGL_EXPORT macro is needed to
    get this to work when building with MSVC */
 COGL_EXPORT extern unsigned long _cogl_debug_flags[COGL_DEBUG_N_LONGS];
 
-extern GHashTable *_cogl_debug_instances;
-
 #define COGL_DEBUG_ENABLED(flag) \
   COGL_FLAGS_GET (_cogl_debug_flags, flag)
 
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-framebuffer.c b/cogl/cogl-framebuffer.c
index 9945b2bcc..bae5c019b 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-framebuffer.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl-framebuffer.c
@@ -119,7 +119,9 @@ typedef struct _CoglFramebufferStackEntry
 
 extern CoglObjectClass _cogl_onscreen_class;
 
+#ifdef COGL_ENABLE_DEBUG
 static CoglUserDataKey wire_pipeline_key;
+#endif
 
 static void _cogl_offscreen_free (CoglOffscreen *offscreen);
 
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-util.h b/cogl/cogl-util.h
index 44589857b..67861bc55 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-util.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl-util.h
@@ -175,7 +175,18 @@ _cogl_util_popcountl (unsigned long num)
 #define _COGL_RETURN_IF_FAIL(EXPR) g_return_if_fail(EXPR)
 #define _COGL_RETURN_VAL_IF_FAIL(EXPR, VAL) g_return_val_if_fail(EXPR, VAL)
 #else
-#define _COGL_RETURN_IF_FAIL(EXPR) do {	                            \
+#if COGL_ENABLE_DEBUG
+#define _COGL_RETURN_START do {
+#define _COGL_RETURN_END } while (0)
+#else /* COGL_ENABLE_DEBUG */
+/* If debugging is disabled then we don't actually want to do the
+ * check but we still want the code for the expression to be generated
+ * so that it won't give loads of warnings about unused variables.
+ * Therefore we just surround the block with if(0) */
+#define _COGL_RETURN_START do { if (0) {
+#define _COGL_RETURN_END } } while (0)
+#endif /* COGL_ENABLE_DEBUG */
+#define _COGL_RETURN_IF_FAIL(EXPR) _COGL_RETURN_START {             \
    if (!(EXPR))						            \
      {							            \
        fprintf (stderr, "file %s: line %d: assertion `%s' failed",  \
@@ -184,8 +195,8 @@ _cogl_util_popcountl (unsigned long num)
                 #EXPR);						    \
        return;						            \
      };                                                             \
-  } while(0)
-#define _COGL_RETURN_VAL_IF_FAIL(EXPR, VAL) do {	                    \
+  } _COGL_RETURN_END
+#define _COGL_RETURN_VAL_IF_FAIL(EXPR, VAL) _COGL_RETURN_START {    \
    if (!(EXPR))						            \
      {							            \
        fprintf (stderr, "file %s: line %d: assertion `%s' failed",  \
@@ -194,7 +205,7 @@ _cogl_util_popcountl (unsigned long num)
                 #EXPR);						    \
        return (VAL);						    \
      };                                                             \
-  } while(0)
+  } _COGL_RETURN_END
 #endif /* COGL_HAS_GLIB_SUPPORT */
 
 /* Match a CoglPixelFormat according to channel masks, color depth,
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 3ed9b2fc1..f273dbd72 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -181,11 +181,11 @@ AS_CASE(
   [yes],
   [
     test "$cflags_set" = set || CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -g -O0"
-    COGL_EXTRA_CFLAGS="$COGL_EXTRA_CFLAGS -DCOGL_GL_DEBUG -DCOGL_OBJECT_DEBUG -DCOGL_HANDLE_DEBUG -DCOGL_ENABLE_DEBUG"
+    COGL_EXTRA_CFLAGS="$COGL_EXTRA_CFLAGS -DCOGL_GL_DEBUG -DCOGL_OBJECT_DEBUG -DCOGL_ENABLE_DEBUG"
   ],
   [no],
   [
-    COGL_EXTRA_CFLAGS="$COGL_EXTRA_CFLAGS -DCOGL_ENABLE_DEBUG -DG_DISABLE_CHECKS -DG_DISABLE_CAST_CHECKS"
+    COGL_EXTRA_CFLAGS="$COGL_EXTRA_CFLAGS -DG_DISABLE_CHECKS -DG_DISABLE_CAST_CHECKS"
   ],
   [AC_MSG_ERROR([Unknown argument for --enable-debug])]
 )