Councillor Tamatha Paul said this would generate 3575 carbon credits over the next 50 years. A carbon credit is a unit representing the right to emit one tonne of carbon emissions.
The move comes just a day after Parliament announced a climate emergency in New Zealand.
The Government now requires all its agencies and ministries to exclusively buy electric vehicles and will mandate all public sector buildings to be up to a "green standard".
This is part of the Government's goal to make the entire public sector carbon neutral by 2025.
Wellington's tree planting is part of the university's commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
It complements council's Two Million Trees programme of planting native trees and expanding carbon sinks in the Outer Green Belt.
"The planting methodology the university proposes is designed to maximise the removal of carbon dioxide from the air as well as providing practical teaching and research opportunities for university staff and students," Mayor Andy Foster said.
Paul said council was looking at the best way to use its land to draw carbon down out of the atmosphere and restore "more of the ecosystems we know Wellingtonians love".
University director of sustainability Andrew Wilks said the initiative also offered significant research opportunities.
"Our Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology has already been involved with planning for the site with master's student Cameron Johnson investigating suitable plant species for the site. We plan to divide the site up into different plots to test different aspects of the reforestation."
It follows Greater Wellington Regional Council's climate committee supporting two proposals to retire grazing and restore rare wetland and forest ecosystems in its Queen Elizabeth and Kaitoke regional parks.
Greater Wellington's low carbon acceleration fund will allocate $1,399,101 to restore 128.5ha of peatland and dune forest at the former and $370,810 to restore 21.8ha of pasture land at the latter.
"These decisions signal Greater Wellington's firm commitment to realise our ambition to become climate positive by 2035 and represent tangible steps on our carbon reduction pathway" said climate committee chairman councillor Thomas Nash.
In Queen Elizabeth Park a proportion of the grazing land will be retired, underlying peatlands restored and adjacent sand dunes will have native forest cover re-established.
This is expected to reduce Greater Wellington's carbon footprint by 1.2 per cent of its gross emissions and 2 per cent of its net emissions, by 2030.
Meanwhile the changes to Kaitoke Regional Park are expected to reduce the footprint by 0.2 per cent in gross emissions and 0.5 per cent in net emissions by 2030.
Collateral benefits include restoration of regionally threatened forest types, significantly improved biodiversity though increasing the habitat available for native birds and other fauna, recreation opportunities and the potential for mānuka honey production.
The two initiatives are the first to be funded from Greater Wellington's low carbon acceleration fund, which was established in April 2020 to fund activities or initiatives that reduce net emissions quicker and/or at a greater scale than otherwise would occur on Greater Wellington's climate positive journey.
