diff --git a/environment.yaml b/environment.yaml
index ff13fd47..12e652d2 100644
--- a/environment.yaml
+++ b/environment.yaml
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ dependencies:
   - xlrd
   - scikit-learn
   - pytables
+  - pycountry
 
   # Include ipython so that one does not inadvertently drop out of the conda
   # environment by calling ipython
@@ -41,4 +42,4 @@ dependencies:
     - git+https://github.com/FRESNA/atlite.git
     #- git+https://github.com/FRESNA/powerplantmatching.git
     #- https://software.ecmwf.int/wiki/download/attachments/56664858/ecmwf-api-client-python.tgz
-    - countrycode
+
diff --git a/scripts/build_shapes.py b/scripts/build_shapes.py
index b56deccd..e2f83874 100644
--- a/scripts/build_shapes.py
+++ b/scripts/build_shapes.py
@@ -9,10 +9,14 @@ import geopandas as gpd
 from shapely.geometry import MultiPolygon, Polygon
 from shapely.ops import cascaded_union
 
-try:
-    from countrycode.countrycode import countrycode
-except ImportError:
-    from countrycode import countrycode
+import pycountry as pyc
+
+def _get_country(target, **keys):
+    assert len(keys) == 1
+    try:
+        return getattr(pyc.countries.get(**keys), target)
+    except KeyError:
+        return np.nan
 
 def _simplify_polys(polys, minarea=0.1, tolerance=0.01, filterremote=True):
     if isinstance(polys, MultiPolygon):
@@ -44,11 +48,9 @@ def countries():
     return s
 
 def eez(country_shapes):
-    cntries = snakemake.config['countries']
-    cntries3 = frozenset(countrycode(cntries, origin='iso2c', target='iso3c'))
     df = gpd.read_file(snakemake.input.eez)
-    df = df.loc[df['ISO_3digit'].isin(cntries3)]
-    df['name'] = countrycode(df['ISO_3digit'], origin='iso3c', target='iso2c')
+    df = df.loc[df['ISO_3digit'].isin([_get_country('alpha_3', alpha_2=c) for c in snakemake.config['countries']])]
+    df['name'] = df['ISO_3digit'].map(lambda c: _get_country('alpha_2', alpha_3=c))
     s = df.set_index('name').geometry.map(lambda s: _simplify_polys(s, filterremote=False))
     return gpd.GeoSeries({k:v for k,v in s.iteritems() if v.distance(country_shapes[k]) < 1e-3})