Artificial intelligence is increasingly positioned as a critical enabler of climate action and sustainable development, offering new tools to address complex, interconnected challenges spanning environmental, economic, and social systems. For Africa—one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions—the potential benefits of AI are significant, yet uneven global AI trajectories risk reinforcing dependency, data asymmetries, and unequal value capture if left unexamined. This paper advances the argument that Africa’s strategic opportunity lies not in the passive adoption of externally designed AI systems but in shaping governance-led, context-aware, and sustainability-oriented AI pathways.