Ah, now we finally have a point where I disagree :) However I'm not sure if this is the right place to discuss this further, but I'll go one level deeper ^^

Yes, having more money and better infrastructure makes it easier to survive natural catastrophes, but I'd argue there is a strong relation between "simply being richer and having better infrastructure" and "emitting more CO2". A lot of economic growth came from access to cheap energy, for which those countries went out of their ways to make sure they get it.