diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index ff54f9020..f5de789fa 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # roxygen2 (development version)
 
+* `evalNamespace()` works again (#1022).
+
 * roxygen2 now keeps using Windows (CR LF) line endings for files that
   already have CR LF line endings, and uses LF for new files (#989).
 
diff --git a/R/namespace.R b/R/namespace.R
index 2209144ce..29c690dbb 100644
--- a/R/namespace.R
+++ b/R/namespace.R
@@ -32,8 +32,7 @@ namespace_roclet <- function() {
 
 #' @export
 roclet_preprocess.roclet_namespace <- function(x, blocks, base_path) {
-
-  lines <- blocks_to_ns(blocks, env, import_only = TRUE)
+  lines <- blocks_to_ns(blocks, emptyenv(), import_only = TRUE)
   NAMESPACE <- file.path(base_path, "NAMESPACE")
 
   if (length(lines) == 0 && !made_by_roxygen(NAMESPACE)) {
@@ -101,6 +100,10 @@ roxy_tag_parse.roxy_tag_evalNamespace <- function(x) {
 }
 #' @export
 roxy_tag_ns.roxy_tag_evalNamespace <- function(x, block, env, import_only = FALSE) {
+  if (import_only) {
+    return()
+  }
+
   roxy_tag_eval(x, env)
 }
 
diff --git a/man/figures/test-figure-1.png b/man/figures/test-figure-1.png
index a39deb0e8..037937329 100644
Binary files a/man/figures/test-figure-1.png and b/man/figures/test-figure-1.png differ
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-namespace.R b/tests/testthat/test-namespace.R
index feffc3036..d224a7f0a 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-namespace.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-namespace.R
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+test_that("end-to-end NAMESPACE generation works", {
+  expect_output(roxygenise(test_path("testNamespace"), "namespace", clean = TRUE))
+
+  ns <- read_lines(test_path("testNamespace/NAMESPACE"))
+  expect_length(ns, 4)
+})
+
 # @export -----------------------------------------------------------------
 
 test_that("export quote object name appropriate", {
diff --git a/tests/testthat/testNamespace/DESCRIPTION b/tests/testthat/testNamespace/DESCRIPTION
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4552c154f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/testNamespace/DESCRIPTION
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Package: testNamespace
+Title: Check that utf8 escapes are round tripped ok
+License: GPL-2
+Description:
+Author: Hadley <hadley@rstudio.com>
+Maintainer: Hadley <hadley@rstudio.com>
+Encoding: UTF-8
+Version: 0.1
+RoxygenNote: 7.0.2.9000
diff --git a/tests/testthat/testNamespace/NAMESPACE b/tests/testthat/testNamespace/NAMESPACE
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c986411e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/testNamespace/NAMESPACE
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+
+export(f)
+export(g)
diff --git a/tests/testthat/testNamespace/R/a.r b/tests/testthat/testNamespace/R/a.r
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cd57423bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/testNamespace/R/a.r
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#' @export
+f <- function(x) x
+
+
+#' @evalNamespace "export(g)"
+g <- function() 1
diff --git a/vignettes/namespace.Rmd b/vignettes/namespace.Rmd
index ea9efa5d9..16f75215e 100644
--- a/vignettes/namespace.Rmd
+++ b/vignettes/namespace.Rmd
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ Generally, roxygen2 can generate the correct namespace directive when `@export`i
 * `@exportMethod foo` generates `exportMethods(foo)`
 * `@exportPattern foo` generates `exportPattern(foo)`
 
-For even more specialised cases you can use `@rawNamespace code` which inserts `code` literally into the `NAMESPACE`. If you need to automate this, `@evalNamespace foo()` will evaluate the `foo()` in the package environment and insert the results into `NAMESPACE`.
+For even more specialised cases you can use `@rawNamespace code` which inserts `code` literally into the `NAMESPACE`. If you need to automate this, `@evalNamespace foo()` will evaluate the `foo()` in the package environment and insert the results into `NAMESPACE`. Because `evalNamespace()` is run in the package environment, it can only generate exports, not imports.
 
 ## Imports