FACTBOX-Impacts for Americas of climate change

(Reuters) - Following are impacts of global warming for the Americas outlined in a draft U.N. climate report due to be released in Brussels on April 6.

The draft, to be discussed by scientists and government experts in the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting from Monday, is looking at the regional effects of warming:

NORTH AMERICA

-- Population growth, rising property values and continued investment increase the vulnerability of coastal regions. Any rise in destructiveness of coastal storms is very likely to bring "dramatic increases" in losses from severe weather and storm surges.

-- Sea level rises and tidal surges and flooding have the "potential to severely affect transportation and infrastructure along the Gulf, Atlantic and northern coasts."

-- Severe heatwaves are likely to worsen over parts of the United States and Canada.

-- Ozone related deaths are projected to increase by 4.5 percent from the 1990s to the 2050s.

-- Projected warming in the western mountains is likely to cause large decreases in snowpack, earlier snowmelt, more winter rains by mid-century.

-- Climate change is likely to increase forest production. But by the second half of the century, the dominant impacts will be disruptions from pests and fires. Forest areas burnt each summer in Canada could rise by between 74 and 118 percent by 2100 compared to now.