diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci_tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci_tests.yaml
index 89c944f2fea..6f5caf0db1d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci_tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci_tests.yaml
@@ -69,22 +69,15 @@ jobs:
       - name: Setup Miniconda
         uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v2.0.1
         with:
+          activate-environment: pygmt
           python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
           channels: conda-forge
           miniconda-version: "latest"
 
       # Install GMT and other required dependencies from conda-forge
-      - name: Install GMT and required dependencies
+      - name: Install dependencies
         shell: bash -l {0}
-        run: |
-          requirements_file=full-conda-requirements.txt
-          cat requirements.txt requirements-dev.txt > $requirements_file
-          cat << EOF >> $requirements_file
-          gmt=6.1.1
-          make
-          codecov
-          EOF
-          conda install --yes --file $requirements_file
+        run: conda env update --file environment.yml
 
       # Show installed pkg information for postmortem diagnostic
       - name: List installed packages
diff --git a/MAINTENANCE.md b/MAINTENANCE.md
index ecc9a2c600f..cebcf471e78 100644
--- a/MAINTENANCE.md
+++ b/MAINTENANCE.md
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ The main advantages of this are:
 
 We use GitHub Actions continuous integration (CI) services to
 build and test the project on Linux, macOS and Windows.
-They rely on the `requirements.txt` file to install required dependencies using
+They rely on the `environment.yml` file to install required dependencies using
 conda and the `Makefile` to run the tests and checks.
 
 ### GitHub Actions
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index 85df40af694..98960605f85 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ channels:
     - conda-forge
     - defaults
 dependencies:
-    - python=3.8
+    # Required dependencies
     - pip
     - gmt=6.1.1
     - numpy
@@ -11,14 +11,17 @@ dependencies:
     - xarray
     - netCDF4
     - packaging
+    # Development dependencies
     - black
     - blackdoc
+    - codecov
     - coverage[toml]
     - docformatter
     - flake8
     - ipython
     - isort>=5
     - jupyter
+    - make
     - matplotlib
     - nbsphinx
     - pylint
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 9b9e10bed0c..00000000000
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-# Requirements for development using conda
-black
-blackdoc
-coverage[toml]
-docformatter
-flake8
-ipython
-isort>=5
-jupyter
-matplotlib
-nbsphinx
-pylint
-pytest-cov
-pytest-mpl
-pytest>=6.0
-sphinx
-sphinx-copybutton
-sphinx-gallery
-sphinx_rtd_theme==0.4.3
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 7d82cb1dd8f..ffdf6724f8e 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Requirements for installing with conda
+# Required packages
 numpy
 pandas
 xarray