diff --git a/kramdown-rfc2629.gemspec b/kramdown-rfc2629.gemspec
index a5ebb40..5a45649 100644
--- a/kramdown-rfc2629.gemspec
+++ b/kramdown-rfc2629.gemspec
@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ spec = Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.summary = "Kramdown extension for generating RFC 7749 XML."
   s.description = %{An RFC7749 (XML2RFC) generating backend for Thomas Leitner's
 "kramdown" markdown parser.  Mostly useful for RFC writers.}
-  s.add_dependency('kramdown', '~> 1.14.0')
+  s.add_dependency('kramdown', '~> 1.16.0')
   s.add_dependency('certified', '~> 1.0')
   s.files = Dir['lib/**/*.rb'] + %w(README.md LICENSE kramdown-rfc2629.gemspec bin/kdrfc bin/kramdown-rfc2629 bin/doilit bin/kramdown-rfc-extract-markdown data/kramdown-rfc2629.erb data/encoding-fallbacks.txt)
   s.require_path = 'lib'
   s.executables = ['kramdown-rfc2629', 'doilit', 'kramdown-rfc-extract-markdown', 'kdrfc']
   s.default_executable = 'kramdown-rfc2629'
-  s.required_ruby_version = '>= 1.9.2'
+  s.required_ruby_version = '>= 2.0.0'
   # s.requirements = 'wget'
   #  s.has_rdoc = true
   s.author = "Carsten Bormann"
diff --git a/lib/kramdown-rfc2629.rb b/lib/kramdown-rfc2629.rb
index 0b4c8a4..28f77ca 100644
--- a/lib/kramdown-rfc2629.rb
+++ b/lib/kramdown-rfc2629.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 raise "sorry, 1.8 was last decade" unless RUBY_VERSION >= '1.9'
 
-gem 'kramdown', '~> 1.14.0'
+gem 'kramdown', '~> 1.16.0'
 require 'kramdown'
 my_span_elements =  %w{list figure xref eref iref cref spanx vspace}
 Kramdown::Parser::Html::Constants::HTML_SPAN_ELEMENTS.concat my_span_elements