diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1fe58d7d88..755f04c9f8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,16 @@ Code freeze date: YYYY-MM-DD
 
 ### Dependency Changes
 
+Added:
+
+- `pyproj` >=3.5
+- `pyarrow` >=14.0
+- `numexpr` >=2.8
+
+Removed:
+
+- `proj` (in favor of `pyproj`)
+
 ### Added
 
 - Convenience method `api_client.Client.get_dataset_file`, combining `get_dataset_info` and `download_dataset`, returning a single file objet. [#821](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/821)
@@ -23,6 +33,7 @@ Code freeze date: YYYY-MM-DD
 - Recommend using Mamba instead of Conda for installing CLIMADA [#809](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/809)
 - `Hazard.from_xarray_raster` now allows arbitrary values as 'event' coordinates [#837](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/837)
 - `climada.test.get_test_file` now compares the version of the requested test dataset with the version of climada itself and selects the most appropriate dataset. In this way a test file can be updated without the need of changing the code of the unittest. [#822](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/822)
+- Explicitly require `pyproj` instead of `proj` (the latter is now implicitly required) [#845](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/845)
 
 ### Fixed
 
@@ -31,6 +42,7 @@ Code freeze date: YYYY-MM-DD
 - `climada.util.yearsets.sample_from_poisson`: fix a bug ([#819](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/issues/819)) and inconsistency that occurs when lambda events per year (`lam`) are set to 1. [[#823](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/823)]
 - In the TropCyclone class in the Holland model 2008 and 2010 implementation, a doublecounting of translational velocity is removed [#833](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/833)
 - `climada.util.test.test_finance` and `climada.test.test_engine` updated to recent input data from worldbank [#841](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/841)
+- Set `nodefaults` in Conda environment specs because `defaults` are not compatible with conda-forge [#845](https://github.com/CLIMADA-project/climada_python/pull/845)
 
 ### Deprecated
 
diff --git a/requirements/env_climada.yml b/requirements/env_climada.yml
index 1988b4af03..53ff63bf0f 100644
--- a/requirements/env_climada.yml
+++ b/requirements/env_climada.yml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 name: climada_env
 channels:
   - conda-forge
-  - defaults
+  - nodefaults
 dependencies:
   - bottleneck>=1.3
   - cartopy>=0.22
@@ -16,15 +16,17 @@ dependencies:
   - matplotlib-base>=3.8 
   - netcdf4>=1.6
   - numba>=0.58
+  - numexpr>=2.8
   - openpyxl>=3.1
   - pandas>=2.1,<2.2  # 2.2 is not compatible with the default pytables=3.7 and yields a very high deprecation warning number through geopandas
   - pandas-datareader>=0.10
   - pathos>=0.3
   - pint>=0.22
   - pip
-  - proj>=9.1
+  - pyarrow>=14.0
   - pycountry>=22.3
   - pyepsg>=0.4
+  - pyproj>=3.5
   - pytables>=3.7
   - pyxlsb>=1.0
   - rasterio>=1.3
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1aff5d0caf..36dafad9fa 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@
         'pillow',
         'pint',
         'pycountry',
+        'pyproj',
         'rasterio',
         'salib',
         'scikit-learn',