CLIMATE activists who staged a protest at Amazon's Dunfermline warehouse on Friday said they did so to highlight what they claim is its "wastefulness" on its busiest day of the year.

Around 20 protestors with Extinction Rebellion (XR) gathered at the firm's fulfilment centre from around 4am as part of a Black Friday demonstration which saw 15 of its warehouses across the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands targeted.

Entrances to the site were blocked using lock-ons and banners that they said was "intended to draw attention to Amazon’s exploitative and environmentally-destructive business practices, disregard for workers' rights in the name of company profits, as well as the wastefulness of Black Friday".

The group said that their action was "happening in solidarity with activists and workers from the global 'Make Amazon Pay' campaign, demanding better working conditions, clear environmental commitments, and for Amazon to pay their fair share of tax", while aiming "to expose Amazon’s crimes and the wastefulness of Black Friday while holding it up as an example of a wider economic system designed to keep us hooked on buying things we don’t need, at a price the planet cannot afford".

An XR spokesperson said: "Not only does Amazon's business emit more carbon emissions than a country the size of Denmark but it is actively helping fossil fuel companies such as Shell, Exxon, and BP to drill for more oil via its Amazon Web Services.

"Amazon continues to lobby the US Government to fight against climate legislation while telling the public they are committed to green initiatives. They are committing the very definition of greenwash."

Amazon told the Press that the company were "on a path to power its operations with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025, and was now the biggest corporate buyer of renewable energy in Europe and the world", and that they co-founded the Climate Pledge – a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040 – in 2019.

A spokesperson added: "At Amazon, we take our responsibilities very seriously. That includes our commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement – providing excellent pay and benefits in a safe and modern work environment and supporting the tens of thousands of British small businesses who sell on our store.

"We know there is always more to do and we’ll continue to invent and invest on behalf of our employees, customers, small businesses and communities in the UK.

"We’re proud to have invested £32 billion in the UK since 2010, creating 10,000 new permanent jobs across the country this year alone, and generating a total UK tax contribution of £1.55bn in 2020."