diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/deal_with_bad_config_types.yml b/changelogs/fragments/deal_with_bad_config_types.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c7b2f99426
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/deal_with_bad_config_types.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+    - better error message when bad type in config, deal with EVNAR= more gracefully https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/22470
diff --git a/lib/ansible/config/manager.py b/lib/ansible/config/manager.py
index ab0db12926..1f36d7cd23 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/config/manager.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/config/manager.py
@@ -436,7 +436,15 @@ class ConfigManager(object):
                             return value, origin
 
             # ensure correct type, can raise exceptoins on mismatched types
-            value = ensure_type(value, defs[config].get('type'), origin=origin)
+            try:
+                value = ensure_type(value, defs[config].get('type'), origin=origin)
+            except ValueError as e:
+                if origin.startswith('env:') and value == '':
+                    # this is empty env var for non string so we can set to default
+                    origin = 'default'
+                    value = ensure_type(defs[config].get('default'), defs[config].get('type'), origin=origin)
+                else:
+                    raise AnsibleOptionsError('Invalid type for configuration option %s: %s' % (to_native(config), to_native(e)))
 
             # deal with deprecation of the setting
             if 'deprecated' in defs[config] and origin != 'default':
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/config/aliases b/test/integration/targets/config/aliases
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a6dafcf8cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/integration/targets/config/aliases
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+shippable/posix/group1
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/config/runme.sh b/test/integration/targets/config/runme.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..f0181afc3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/integration/targets/config/runme.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+set -eux
+
+# ignore empty env var and use default
+# shellcheck disable=SC1007
+ANSIBLE_TIMEOUT= ansible -m ping localhost "$@"
+
+# env var is wrong type, this should be a fatal error pointing at the setting
+ANSIBLE_TIMEOUT='lola' ansible -m ping localhost "$@" 2>&1|grep 'AnsibleOptionsError: Invalid type for configuration option DEFAULT_TIMEOUT'