diff --git a/release/changelog_environment.yml b/release/changelog_environment.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b38166d5e6267da6916006b0d6a7d97e63638730
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/changelog_environment.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# run: conda env create --file environment.yml
+name: changelog
+dependencies:
+- python>=3.5
+- docopt
+- pip
+- pip:
+  - python-gitlab
diff --git a/release/generate_changelog.py b/release/generate_changelog.py
index 3ef1ec0cbe312f1dc1bcb6c33e20e374d825c798..888b4565bf8d439a234c05b623d807022af86eb7 100755
--- a/release/generate_changelog.py
+++ b/release/generate_changelog.py
@@ -17,11 +17,9 @@ Options:
 
 """
 
-import os
 import sys
 from docopt import docopt
 import gitlab
-import distutils.version
 import datetime