Lowering of refrigerant emissions by cycling of a variable displacement compressor

In order to reduce refrigerant leakage from an automotive air conditioning system, the leakage paths are kept sealed by automatically reducing the output of a variable displacement compressor after initial operation of the engine for a predetermined number of five minutes, and then only for a predetermined number of ten seconds, that is, so long as there has been an air conditioning on signal by the operator. After the reduction in output for ten seconds, the output of the compressor is returned to full output for a predetermined number of two air-conditioning minutes, which is then followed by another ten seconds of reduced output.